^> «> ^.o. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 7 // w <> /*v ^ 1.0 I.I nso US 1^ IliiiM 1.8 1-25 1111.4 111.6 V] <^ /a ol <2r o^ 7 ^ / y /^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 images in the reproduction are checlted below. reproduction sont notds ci-dessous. D Coloured covers/ Couvertures de couleur D Coloured pages/ Pages d — the Father in heaven is known just as a father on earth is known. The latter is as unseen as the former. No human being has ever really seen another. No sense has will, or wisdom, or goodness for its object. Man musJ"^ infer the existence of his fellow- men, for he can have no immediate perception of it. He must become acquainted with their characters through the use of his intelligence, because character cannot be heard with the ear, or looked upon with the eye, or touched with the finger. Yet a child is not long in learning tha'; a spirit is near it. As soon as it knows itself, it easily detects a spirit like its own, yet other than itself, when the signs of a spirit's activity are presented to it." " Strang:) doctrine," you say. Yes; but perfectly FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. 19 ff i ! n ■ j.' i analogous in this regard to the physical sciences. You .suppose the universe called material lies at our very door; that it asserts its independent existence with most indubitable evidence ; and that our knowledge of it is quite exhaustive. Not so, however, the lead- ing scientists. It is a charge gravely brought against idealistic philosophers, that they in their metaphysical |li abstractions have got so far away from the world of concrete reality that they alone either deny its exist- ence or claim that we have little or no knowledge of it. John Stuart Mill was an enthusiastic student of physi- cal science, and yet the material r.niverse w!\s to him but "the permanent possibility of producing sensations." Alexander Bain is to-day no tyro in such subjects, and yet he gives as the conclusion of the whole matter the following: "The arguments for the two sub- stances " — matter and mind — " have, we believe, now entirely lost their validity ; they are no longer com- patible with ascertained science and clear thinking. The one substance, with two sets of properties, two sides, the physical and the mental — a double-faced unity — would appear to comply with all the exigen- cies of the case." " Both professedly metaphysicians," you say. Yes ; but both of the empirical school, and so more likely to be advocates of the material side of things. But turn to those who are not metaphysi- cians by profession, but physicists. Stewart and Tait, in their celebrated work, " The Unseen Universe," say: "Matter is — though it may sound paradoxical to say so — the less important half ( i !f n 20 FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. of the material of tho physical universe." And again : ** But, before discussing what is that something else besides stuff, which has an objective though not a sub- stancive existence, let us in the first place inquire into the grounds of our belief that matter itself has a real existence external to us ; that, in fact, the so-called evidence of our senses is not a mere delusion." Then follows an attempted proof of the existence of the material universe of which they are the professional expounders. Not yet satisfied ? What says Huxley, /aci/e prin- ceps in this department of study ? In his " Lay Sermons," p. 327, he says : " Whatever matter may be in itself, all that we can know of it is under the shape of a bundle of our own consciousness. Nor is the knowledge of anything we know or feel more or less than a knowledge of states of consciousness." Huxley says somewhere : " Logical consequences are the scare- crows of fools;" but in charity let us not indulge in drawing any while we are left in so great doubt as to the existence of either the scarecrow or the fool. Here we are brought around again to the same con- clusion — all that we know is enclosed within a very small circle ; while what we believe, or the realm of faith, even in physical science, is a territory, compared with the former, almost infinitely great. It will doubtless be concluded that not alone in metaphysics and theology is the faith faculty called into requisition. It could, we think, be easily shown th^t they, less than all other sciences, lay that faculty FAITH VS. KNOWLEIKJE. 21 under contribution ; that there is more and stronger evidence to prove the entity of the soul than can be summoned to the defence of a physical atom ; and that the doctrine of the Divine existence can be more fully sustained than can that of a material universe. Nothinij: lies nearer to us than the facts of conscious- ness, be those facts merely phenomenal of the ego, or be they the oracular utterances of reason. In the latter case we are introduced immediately into a realm of law and reality, touching all phases of existence, all time, and all space. But law in itself is an abstraction, and as such has no substantive character. Law, like force, is a consequence, having reality for its antecedent; and the nature of the law is a revelation of the nature of the reality of which the law is an expression. Jn the depths of our being mysterious processes are ever going on. It is only by analysis and reflection that we reach anything approaching a correct apprehension of their significance. If all the laws and modes of action of our marvellously complex intellectual life were expressed in one single law and by one word, " Causality " would claim the highest title to such royal distinction. It is, perhaps, not too much to say, that in some form or manifestation the law of causality reveals itself in every intellectual operation. It is, however, with its primitive or fundamental character that we are at present most deeply concerned. In that primitive character it asserts the personality, and con- sequent spirituality, of the ego. " The ever-changing phenomena that each one is couvscious of so necessarily |: iUI 22 FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGK. presupposes an uncliant^ing ego or self to sustain and connect them, that one cannot, even when one tries the experiment, conceive them appearing and the tran- scendent ego not existing." (Fraser's Berkely, p. xii.) At ;he same time, the relative or dependent char- acter of the ego is declared, and upon the same high authority. In the presence of the relot. \ ^ly true, beautiful, and good, and of its own personalit}'', it asserts the existence of an absolute Being and Person- ality, the final and uniting ground of all truth, and consequently of all dependent forms of existence or being — " Whose kingdom is where time and space are not." In this primitive and spontaneous utterance of our intellectual life the great mass of huma.iity always remains. Strangera to reflection they are equally strangers to doubt, and are put to confusion with the endless logomachy of the schools. In the language of Cousin, here is a " primitive affirmation which implies no negation. . . . Reflection is the theatre of the com- bat which reason engages in with itself, with doubt, sophism, and error. But above reflection is a sphere of light and peace, where reason perceives truth with- out returning on itself, for the sole reason that truth is truth, and because God has made the reason to perceive it, as He has made the eye to see and the ear to hear." Here in the deep recesses of the soul man communes with that other Ego of whom we are each the image, and we know Him as FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. 23 " Life continuous, Being unimpaired ; That hath been, is, and where it was and i." There shall endure,— existence unexposed To the blind walk of mortal accident; From diminution safe, and weakening age." In these depths, untrodden by the senses, consecrated only to the service of reason and the moral life, are laid the foundations of all that can with any warrant be called science. Observation, methods of experiment, the whole history of speculative thought, have but confirmed these fundamental utterances; in every instance, it may be, enlarginor the field of knowledge, but never making more extended the realm of truth, and always confirming our faith in those rational prin- ciples that so project all our thought into the unseen. Truth — science — is found, not made. Reflection— study— is then the fruit of the forbidden tree ? Let Tennyson answer : — You say, but with no touch of scorn, Sweet-hearted, you, whose light-blue eyes Are tender over drowning flies, You tell me, doubt is Devil-born. I know not : one indeed I knew In many a subtle question versed, Who touched a jarring lyre at first, But ever strove to make it true : Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, At last he ber.t his music out. There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds. I! a 24 FAiTH VS. KNOWLEDGE. He fought his doubts and gathered strength, He would not make his judgment blind, He faced the spectres of the mind And laid them : thus he came at length To find a stronger faith his own ; And Power was with him in the night, Which makes the darkness and the light, And dwells not in the light alone, But. in the darkness and the cloud, As over Sinai's peaks of old, While Israel made their gods of gold, Altho' the trumpet blew so loud. — In Memoriam, Canto xcvi. We thus see that we need intellectual muscle as well as physical, for there will as assuredly be days of struffffle and conflict in the mental as in the material phases of life. But doubt, for the mere purpose of encouragintr and engendering scepticism, is something quite different from that which merely suspends the judgment until the evidence on all sides has been duly considered. The last is boch eminently philosophical and scriptural. What, then, is the nature of faith, and what its province in relation to knowledge ? We will endeavor to answer the two questions to- gether. Our view could, however, be readily inferred from preceding statements. I have always thought it somewhat anomalous that works on mental philosophy give little or no place to a consideration of the faith faculty. It is surely entitled to a discussion equally with, if not more than, some- others, because of its dis- FAITH VS. KNOWLE^OGE. 25 tinctive characteristics and its far-reaching conse- quences. In works on theology it has been given undue prominence, and too frequently made to do ser- vice where a little philosophy would not have lessened the value of theology as a science, although a death- blow might thus be struck to the advocacy of some special creed. It has thus coine to pass that profes- sional theologians have too little regard for the claims of a sound philoscphy, while professional philosophers are equally culpable in ostracising faith. They are fellow-workers, and again we say, what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. How beautifully has Wordsworth expressed the inner and united working of faith and reason :— "I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell; To which, in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely; and his countenance soon Brightened with joy; for from within were heard Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed Mysterious union with its native sea. Even such a shell the universe itself Is to the ear of Faith ; and there are times, I doubt not, when to you it doth impart Authentic tidings of invisible tl'-gs; Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power; And central peace, subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation. ... • This is the genuine course, the aim and eijd Of prescient reason; all conclusions else Are abject, vain, presumptuous, and perverse." i Ji i iH 26 FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. It has always appeared to me as a fundamental error in the Kantian philosophy, that rational laws can do efficient service and enlarge the field of knowledge only where such laws may be made sensuous. It is at this point that subjective Idealism finds one of its strongholds in a philosophical system that has in it so many elements of perpetuity. It is also one of the beaten highways upon which Rationalism has driven, to the great detriment of theoretical and practical Christianity. The laws of reason — in other words, the fundamental principles of scien'^.e — all take hold upon the unseen, and the logical ou ae of each and all should be the union of faith and reason in the highest type of man, the reverent and adoring Christian. There are three grades of scientific knowledge — the empirical, the rational or noetic, and the theological. The first enquires after the fact, and errs (1) when the fact is taken as a finality declarative and confirmatory of nothing beyond itself, or (2) when it resolves every fact into mere mechanical and physical forces. The second deals with mathematics and the philoso- phical sciences generally. Here the enquiry is for law, principles universal and absolute. Its error is two- fold — (1) In giving existence to principles independent of some concrete reality, and (2) In mistaking what that reality is in which these principles finally centre. In theology we stand face to face with the finality in all thought and investiojation. This is the hiorhest stage and culmination of knowledge. "The three grades are habitually designated as science, philoso- ' FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. 27 phy, and theology, implying that th . two latter are not science. There is a mighty power in words. And it is an unworthy artifice for the students of physical science to appropriate to their own branch of study the name science and to themselves the name scien- tists." "Knowledge in each of the three grades is science in the true sense of the word, and the exclusive appropriation of the word to empirical science is un- justifiable."— iTarr is' Basis of Theism. We ought all to be familiar with the followino- statement from Aristotle : " There are three genera of the speculative sciences— the physical or natural, the mathematical, and the theological. ... Of these sciences that one which is mentioned last of the three possesses the greatest amount of excellence, for it is conversant about that one amongst entities which is more entitled to respect than the rest. Each science, however, is termed more excellent, and more inferior, according to its appropriate object of scientific knowledo-e "— /J/e/ Bk. X., Gap. VIL It is a sad reflection upon the degeneracy and ma- terialistic tendencies of our times when that which to a heathen Greek was the highest of all the sciences is now declared unworthy of the name, and must, for- sooth, be but the creed of efJeminate superstition.' The true position is : Facts rests upon laws ; laws are re- vealed to us through and by the operations of reason ; these laws, these truths- is, " Deathless flowers from Paradise transplanted 28 FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. are discovered, not made, and they thus reveal them- selves as the workings of an infinitely perfect, and in some way all-comprehending intelligence, called God. He is the ultimate cause of all intellectual, moral and spiritual phenomena, and these are a more sufficient basis for affirming His existence than physical phe- nomena are tor that of material existence. And so Plato says : " At the extreme limits of the intellectual world is the idea of the good, which is perceived with difficulty, but, in fine, cannot be per- ceived without concluding that it is the source of all that is beautiful and good ; that in the visible world it produces light, and the star whence the light directly comes ; that in the invisible world it directly produces truth and intelligence." Bacon says : " It is most wise soberly to render unto faith the things that are faith's." Here, as elsewhere, faith comes to supplement know- ledge, when knowledge herself confesses that her own resources are exhausted, and that such aid is indispen- sable, and, let us add, perfectly rational. Without God as the finality, science is meaningless, philosophy is impossible, and knowledge vanishes as a dream. Deny to faith its right to supplement and complete knowledge, when reason transcends experience and carries us unerringly into the realm of the supersen- sible, and intellectupl chaos is the result. All science thus rests upon faith, and all go to school to theology, carrying with them the hard questions and unsolved problems that, in the nature of things, could elsewhere find no solution. ' FAITH VS. KNOWLEDGE. 29 What then is the province of faith ? It affords an absolute and rational certainty of that to which no sensuous experience can attain. It teaches us that wnile faith is more extensive than knowledge, it is at the same time the basis of knowledge, and that the two are inseparably associated. It asserts the existence of God, without fully declaring all which that existence involves. " Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home." It carries the key that alone can open the portal leading to the solution of all mysteries and the dissi- pation of all error. It is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things hot seen." It is reason giving assent to its own utterances, reaching far beyond the sphere of the bodily senses. It is rea- son looking from the standpoint of the wreck and ruin of the present, and, like "The rainbow smiling on the faded storm," is prophetic of hushed tempests and cloudless skies. ^ m ^mi ' Christ, the ^tght of the ®orIi : A SERMON DELIVERED BEFORE THE THEOLOGICAL UNION OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, MAY 8th, 1887. BY THE REV. J. COOPER ANTLIFF, D.D. i:m H pennon. CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. •' Then spake Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world. "—John viii 12. It has been said by Tholuck, that " Christ every where derived the similitudes which He employed from something which met His eyes." Though this statement may be too general, yet it is evident that usually our Lord's metaphors were taken from objects just before Him, or from incidents that were transpir- ing or had recently transpired in His presence. Thus we find that it was shortly after a great multitude had been miraculously fed with five barley loaves and two fishes that Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" and it was at the close of the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the priests had daily ascended Mount Zion with water m the sacred vessels from the stream of Siloam which they poured amidst great rejoicings upon the great altar, that Jesus cried, saying, - If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink." The remarkable metaphor employed by our Lord in the passage now 34 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. selected as the basis of our meditations was doubtless suggested by something immediately before the eyes of Himself and His hearers, though there is some differ- ence of opinion as to what this something was. Some maintain that as the words were spoken on the last great day of the feast, and in that part of the temple called the treasury, the reference is to the two huge candelabra which stood in this apartment, w^hich were fifty cubits high and richly gilt, and which were sur- mounted by immense lamps that during the Feast of Tabernacles were lighted, and which illumined the temple and indeed the whole city with their brilliant light. Pointing to these candelabra, whose light was meant to remind the people of the shining pillar of fire, which led their fathers through the wilderness, our Lord declared, " I am the light of the world : he that foUoweth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." But others hold the opinion that as our Lord spoke these words early in the morn- ing, when the rising sun was scattering the mists and filling the city and temple with eftulgence, which was brilliantly reflected by the golden ornaments of the temple, the reference is to the orb of day, and that there is special beauty in the metaphor when it is remembered that ancient prophecy declared, "Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings." So far as the words themselves are concerned, the reference might be to either the golden lamps or to the golden sun, or indeed to both; but as the sun is the more majestic, and CHUIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 35 perhaps significant figure, we prefer to suppose that our Lord had special reference to this when He de- clared, " I am the light of the world." Let us then proceed to consider this august and comprehensive declaration, which, in passing, we may remark, gives incidental confirmation to the doctrine of our Lord's divinity; for apart from this doctrine it will be hard to reconcile it with the statement made on another occasion — " I am meek and lowly of heart ;" but when we accept the doctrine that Christ was God as well as man, the two declarations are at once in harmony, as setting forth the two sides of His mys- terious nature and person. In our text we are taught the great truth that Christ is the source of light to the moral and spiritual world ; or in other words, the doc- trine is set forth, that what the sun is to the physical world Christ is to the spiritual world. Now, light very aptly is employed as an emblem of knowledge, of safety, and of joy, and we shall therefore endeavor to prove and illustrate — I. That Christ is the giver of knowledge. IL That He is the author of safety. ill. That He is the source of joy. I. We remark that Christ is the giver of knowledge. In all nations light is employed as an emblem of knowledge and truth, while darkness is employed to represent ignorance and error ; so that as the physical world is in darkness without the sun, the spiritual world is in darkness without Christ ; for " that which doth make manifest is light." A very brief considera- .% (!FIHTST, THE LTOHT OF THE WORLD. tion of the condition of men, apart from the revelation that Christ has imparted, will show how ignorant even the most learned men were about the most important matters that concern our race. While in the repfion of literary and intellectual scholarship they attained the very summit of excellence, in the region of the moral and spiritual they were '•Puzzled with mazes and perplexed with errors." Their need of a teacher from God becomes the more evident as we contemplate the disparity between their proficiency in worldly wisdom and their deficiency in heavenly wisdom : which shows that there is no neces- sary connection between science and sanctity, and j^enius and grace. And it may not be amiss to call attention, in passing, to the fact that in this nineteenth century the men who rank highest in science and art are not on that account to be regarded as oracles when they speak about morals and religion. Think of the marvellous attainments of those who lived before Christ, in literature, art and science, and then notice iiow foolish were their conceptions concerning divine and spiritual things. While illustrations might be drawn from Assyria, Egypt, and other famous lands of antiquity, we will look only at Greece, 'vhere intellect seemed to bear its richest fruitage. What do we find ? In poetry, the dramas of ^schylus, Euripides and Sophocles, the comedies of Aristophanes, the lyrics of Sappho, the epics of Homer, are still read as models of strength and beauty. In eloquence, Demosthenes and CHRIST, THE T-IOHT OF THE WORLD. 37 ^schines still captivate admiring students. In philo- sophy, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle rank as great schoolmasters of the world. In mathematics, the writ- ings of Euclid are studied to-day in our highest seats of learning. In painting, Zeuxis and Parrhasius repre- sent the highest style of art. In sculpture, the names of Phidias, Apelles and Praxiteles are household words; while in architecture, the names of some of the princi- pal styles, as the Ionic, the Doric, and Corinthian, tell us how much we are still indebted to that classic land. But when we turn from these branches of mere human knowledge to those that concern man as a moral and spiritual being, we find ourselves taken out of warmth and sunshine into coldness and darkness that, like that of the Egyptian plague, may be felt : for " darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." It seems as if the Almighty permitted the greatest and grandest spirits the heathen world produced to fall into mistal^ie and error, to show how utterly impotent human reason is to discover spiritual truth. This is seen — 1. In their conception of God. St. Paul, speaking on this subject, asks : " Where is the wise ? Where is the scribe ? Where is the disputer of this world ? For in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God " (1 Cor. i. 20, 21). And again the same apostle writes : " Professing themselves to be wise, they be- came fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, 38 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OP THE WORLD. . . . and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator " (Rom. i. 22, 23, 25). The philosophers in some instances confounded God and nature, and in others set forth the Divine Being as an absolute and infinite Being, but without consciousness or without any interest in human affaire. In the classic poems, which enshrined the popular belief, the gods and god- desses were represented as guilty of flagrant sins. Contrast this with Christ s teaching, who declared, " No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Christ is the revealer, the illuminator, of God ; for as St. John declares, " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Christ meets man's yearning to see God, and the revelation is found both in the words and works of Christ. In the discourses of our Lord we find the spirituality of God and His tender com- passion for men prominently declared. What a flood of light is poured on the nature and character of God in the Sermon on the Mount and our Lord's conver ation with the woman of Samaria ! But especially in Christ's works do we see the manifestation of God. We there see infinite power exerted to heal and com- fort ; Divine love is seen pouring itself upon the out- cast and neglected ; the tones of His voice are tremu- lous with heavenly pity, and the other attributes of God also manifest themselves in His gracious yet righteous dealings with men. He is the image of the invisible God. In Him we see, so to speak, God CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 39 translated into the common language of men, that He may be apprehended and appropriated. Just as the treasures locked up in an unknown tongue cannot be known until some scholar shall give a translation, so until God is incarnated we cannot see and know Him ; hence God became man, and in Christ's human life we learn what are God's thoughts and purposes con- cernmg us As Tennyson truly says " Though truths in manhood darkly join, Deep-seated in our mystic frame, ^V'e yield all blessing to the name Of Him that made them current coin ; For Wisdom dealt with mortal powers, Where truth in closest words shall fail, When truth embodied in a tale Shall enter in at lowly doors. And so the Word had breath, and wrought With human hands the creed of creeds In loveliness of perfect deeds, More strong than all poetic thought." In the epistle to the Hebrew.s a beautiful expression is employed to signify the body of Christ— the veil ; and such it was indeed. Man could not gaze on Deity without some intervening curtain, for the dazzling brightness would have blinded him ; and consequently Christ comes to us to show the Father, but with the brightness of the Godhead toned down and attempered to our vision by the incarnation. In reference, then, to the nat-jre and character of God we understand more than the ancients ; not because our understanding 40 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. is stronger or our intuition clearer, but because we have the clear light of Christ's teachings, which illu- mines the subject as the orb of day in his full shining lights up and beautifies the otherwise dark and distant landscape. 2. Let us now contemplate the revelation Christ gives us concerning man ; and that in reference, first to human duty, and then to human destiny. (1) In the region of morals. One of the greatest of the sages of antiquity is said to have remarked, " We need a teacher from God." When we contemplate the moral character and teachings of the best men who were devoid of Christ's light, w^e shall discover how different were their conceptions of right and obligation to those now accepted as the purest and best. Moral qualities we esteem were in some cases unknown to them, and in other instances vices were ' exalted into the place of virtues. As instances of the former, humility, humanity and virtue may be mentioned. Every student of language knows these words had a meaning attached to them by the ancients very dif- ferent to their present signification ; for it is a note- worthy fact that Christianity had either to invent new terms or else employ old ones in a new sense. Max Miiller says, "The very word 'humanity' was unknown before Christianity." As instances of vices being exalted into the position of virtues we may instance revenge, which that great philosopher Aristotle praises as a noble thing. Pride was counted as an honorable trait of character. Suicide was defended and even Christ, the light of the world. 41 practised by men ranking as most distinguished moral teachers. A striking feature of the ethics of the most cultured nations is that morality in its higher forms, as it is conceived by the best of the philosophers, was never considered as for the people at large, but only for the few ; or to use a phrase now current — morality was for the classes and not for the masses. The uni- versality of a high and noble morality appears never to have been entertained as a feasible or even desirable thing. The profoundest thinkers were most sadly con- scious of the incompetence of their teachings to exalt the degraded and sinful populace ; and a wail of des- pair like a sad undertone runs through their philoso- phisings. Ultimately, as their history proves, the classic nations of antiquity were overwhelmed and destroyed by the flood of their moral corruptions ; for in vain did their moralists exhort to justice and goodness when their system told of no high and adequate sanc- tion to enforce the duties they set forth. Coleridge truly likened the light of ancient philosophy to that of the lantern-fly of the tropics moving in luminous specks on the face of the night — mere gleams and points, of no avail in the gloom around. When, how- ever, we turn to the Divine teachings of our Lord we are at once in broad sunlight. Here we find the pro- foundest ethical needs of man satisfied ; here beautiful theory is conjoined with holy practice, and Christ stands forth before the nations, after being gazed upon for eighteen hundred years, as the Teacher of whom all say, " Never man spake as this man," and of whose 1 1 1 1 ••-»•• 42 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. moral character the record is still true, " We find no fault in Him." Those who reject Christianity are compelled to do homage at the shrine of Jesus of Nazareth, and, as is well known, some of the most glowing tribute to the matchless teachings of our Lord are from sceptics. Let us hear the testimony of one or two of them. Rousseau breaks out into the follow- ing impassioned language when contemplating Christ : " What sweetness, what purity in His manner ! What an affecting grace "alness in His delivery ! What sub- limity in His maxims! What profound wisdom in His discourses ! What presence of mind, what subtilty, what truth in His replies ! How great His command over His passions ! Where is the man — where the philosopher who could so live and so die without weakness and without ostentation ? Where could Jesus learn, among His competitors, that pure and sublime morality, of which He only hath given both precept and example ? " In the posthumous essays of John Stuart Mill we have the following glowing eulogy of Christ as a moralist : " About the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with pro- fundity of insight, which if we abandon the idle expectation of scientific precision, when something very different was aimed at, must place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no belief in His inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre-eminent genius is combined with CHRIST, TV MGHT OF THE WORLD. 43 the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to that mission who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching on this man as the ideal representa- tive and guide of humanity ; nor even now would it be easy even for an unbeliever to find a better transla- tion of the rule of virtue from the abstract to the concrete than to endeavor to live so that Christ would approve our life." Renan says: "Jesus is the highest of the pillars that show to man whence he comes and whither he ought to tend. In Him is condensed all that is good and exalted in our nature." In this connection also it is worth remarking that Auguste Comte, the high-priest and arch -apostle of that strange system called Positivism, is said by John Stuart Mill to have found his favorite study in Thomas a Kempis' " De Imitatione Christi." The system of morals Christ taught stands without a compeer or even a rival, and the world is more attentively listening to His words of grace and wisdom as the centuries pass along. (2) Let us pass on to glance at the light Christ has cast on the problem of human destiny. St. Paul states that " Our Saviour Jesus Christ has abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." Here again a compari- son of the opinions of the most cultured of the heathen with the revelation afibrded us by Christ will at once disclose the superiority of Christian doctrine. One 44 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. school of philosophers gave no hope of a future exis- tence, another taught that the soul is material and mortal, and even amongst those teachers who seemed to have the clearest insight into the future there is vacillation and uncertainty. Turning to the popular theology as found in the poets, we tind little to disarm death of its terrors. Read the eleventh book of the Odyssey, which contains the account of the visit of Ulysses to the regions of departed spirits, and how sad and chilling are the descriptions of the abode, the con- dition and the employments of the departed ! Then turn to our Saviour's words in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel. What certainty, what warmth, what blessedness are enshrined in those inspiring and hope- giving words ! These words have softened the pillows of myriads of dying saints, and enkindled triumphant hope in the bosoms of the stricken and bereaved. Yes, Christ draws aside the veil that hides the future from eyes, and discloses entrancing visions of our eager immortality for the good, and visions of remorse and pain for the finally impenitent. Apart from the clear and certain teachings of our Lord, the words are true — "And what am I? An infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry." But with the teachings of Christ falling on the mystery of the future life, we find the darkness dissipated ; " for we know that if our earthly house of this taber- CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 45 nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens " (2 Cor. V. 1). In meditating on Christ's teachings concerning these subjects, do we not feel that the claim He makes in our text is fully justified by the facts, and that He is indeed the light of the world ? Let us walk in this light ; and while some shut themselves in the blackness of sheer unbelief, and others grope in the twilight of agnosticism, be it ours to open all the windows of intellect and heart to the sunlight of the sure word of Christ's teaching. But light is also an emblem of safety, and we proceed to observe — II. That Christ is the author of safety. Darkness is a fitting symbol of danger and inse- curity ; hence we read : " The path of the wicked is as darkness ; they know not at what they stumble." A child seems instinctively to fear when alone in dark- ness. This state of trepidation, of fear, of insecurity, well sets forth the condition of men apart from Christ. Men naturally entertain a dread of God so long as He is unknown. The imagination pictures Him as mighty and terrible, as the Greek conceived Jupiter holding thunderbolts in his red right hand ; and to the modern heathen, God is a dreadful king of furies, delighting in the cries of sacrificial victims. But, besides the element of ignorance, there is another potent ingredient that adds to man's sense of danger, and that is the consciousness of sin. Wherever un- 46 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. forgiven sin exists, the intuition we have of righteous- ness, together with the upbraidings of conscience, will cause alarm. The history of men of every age and clime, of every religion and stage of civilization, proves this position. When men begin to think they begin to fear. Now, Christ gives light concerning the mys- tery of sin and the greater mystery of pardon. From His lips we find no apology for sin ; it is not an acci- dent in the history of mankind ; it is not merely a misfortune or a negative quality, nor a pardonable frailty, but it is something exceedingly evil. Indeed, only Christ's disciples have any conception of "the exceeding sinfulness of sin." So that Christ does not give security by blinding the eyes to the nature of evil, which is the fashion some would adopt. No ; it stands forth in all its repulsive hideousness. It is seen to be an offence in the eyes and nostrils of God, and a curse and burden to man; but Christ shows how it may be pardoned, and how the soul may be cleansed from its guilt. There is a light streaming from the cross on this subject, and hence it is in the doctrine of Christ's atonement that we find a sense of security. We behold "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." We learn that " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." When these words enter into the heart troubled with the burning consciousness of guilt ; when the weary soul rests on Christ's sacrifice and finds pardon, then the feeling of security springs CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 47 up in the heart, the darkness is past, and the glorious light fills the soul. " Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace " (Luke i. 78-79). Let a man know — not merely hope, but absolutely know — that he is for- given, and how safely he walks ! He has the spirit of adoption pervading his heart. Both God's provi- dence and God's grace conspire to bless him. With firm foot and a brave heart he walks through this present world. His triumphant song has become : " The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom shall I fear ? The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom shall 1 be afraid ?" (Psalm xxvii. I.) He can face i hardship and trial fearlessly, for he is a son of God ' and can trust his Father to preserve him ; and even in the prospect of death there is no trepidation, for he can exclaim confidently: "O death, where is thy l, sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory k through our Lord Jesus Christ." ii' But we further observe that light is an emblem of joy ; and we remark — IIL That Christ is the source of joy. Darkness is the symbol of misery : hence we read of such as " sit in darkness and the shadow of death," and hell is spoken of as " outer darkness." It seems natural for darkness and gloom to depress the spirits 48 CHRIST, THE LICIHT OF THE WORLD. and for li^ht and sunshine to exhilarate, and this is the reason that in Scripture light is so frequently employed to indicate comfort and joy. Hence we read of the " light of God's countenance," and the Psalmist says: " Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in henrt : rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous." Consider what is the state of mankind in regard to true joy apart from the Gospel of Christ. The records of history prove that whatever man's outward condition may be, unless there is inward peace and rest his life is one of misery. Let a man have all the world can give him apart from Christ, and his condition is miserable ; so it is a true saying that the ancient systems of philosophy had their origin in despair. The incompete^^ce of outward advantages to give joy finds a remarkable illustration in the ex- perience of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who lived when our Lord uttered our text. As is well known, he retired to a lovely isle in the iEgean Sea that he might the more fully surrender himself to sensual pleasures, and he gave himself up to a life of unre- strained indulgence and luxury. From that enchant- ing retreat he wrote these bitter words to his servile and corrupted Senate : " What to write, or what not to write, may all the gods and goddesses destroy me worse th^,n I feel they are daily destroying me, if I know " (Tac. Ann. VI.); and Pliny speaks of him in these mel- ancholy words : " Tristissimus ut constat hominum " — confessedly the most gloomy of men. The experience of an English nobleman in more recent times, as CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 49 famous for his vices as for his genius, affords a further illustration of the utter inability of ouiward circum- stances to give joy to the soul. Contrast the experi- ence of Tiberias in his retreat of pleasures with St. Paul singing in the inner prison at Philippi, while his unwashed wounds were still keenly smarting; and compare Byron's tragic words — ' ' My days are in the yellow leaf ; ■ The flowers, the fruit of love, are gone ; The worm, the canker and the grief Are mine alone. The fire that on my bosom preys Is lone as some volcanic isle," with the words of John Wesley, "By the grace of God, I never fret, I repine at nothing, I am discontented with nothing. I see God sitting on His throne and ruling all things well." Christ to-day is like a great reservoir from which countless multitudes are drawing unspeakable joy. They rejoice in the Lord : they live a life of the high- est type in Him, and gladly confess their dependence on Him for all they hold dearest. And as in the scientific world it is an accepted doctrine, that all our physical well-being is dependent on the sun, and that death will ensue on our ceasing to appropriate his imparted gifts, so in the realm of the spiritual world Christ is the source of all spiritual life and delights ; and following Him who is the light of the world, we do not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. 4 50 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Christ is pre-eminently the Consoler, and the prophet Isaiah emphasizes this in that passage which afforded a text for Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth, which amongst other words contains these, " He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort them that mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah Ixi. 1-3). And this joy is meant for all. Jesus says, "I am the light of the ivorld;" not for one country or age, but for all countries and all ages. When men create their lights, whether by gas or electncity or other means, they provide only for themsel v'es and those about them ; but when God says, " Let light be," the daylight comes flooding along o'er mountain and valley, o'er ocean and meadow, giving plenitude and splendor to cottage and mansion ; and in the same manner Christ, the Sun in the spiritual firmament, sends forth light for prince and peasant, for literate and illiterate, and for young and old. The echoes of His birthday hymn still are melodiously vibrating — " Fear not : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." If you would enjoy life, follow Christ : keep your face turned towards Him like that lovely flower, the helioiirope, keeps its face ever turned towards the sun and thus gets sweetness and beauty. I have the joy this morning of speaking to many whose sacred duty it is to preach this Christ, and I CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 51 address others who entertain a holy and burning desire to have their life consecrated to this loved employ. I hail you, my brethren in the ministry, as sharers in the most delightful work in which a man can engage. We are stars in the right hand of our Master. Our light is borrowed from Him. Wo are called to re- flect its effulgence, and as we go hither and thither holding forth the Word of Life, we might appro- priately adopt as our motto the words engraved on a famous lighthouse on the English coast — " To give light to save life." Let us be careful to let the light shine fully on ignorant, endangered and miser- able men. They need what we can give ; they do not need literary essays nor philosophical disquisitions when they look up to us as we stand in our pulpits. Men are panting for the true light, and the cry of dying men is like the last words of Goethe, " More light." The gospel of Christ has not lost its power, and cannot be dispensed with in this age of scientific knowledge and invention. The most popular books to-day are those which tell the story of the life of Christ. The story of His life, His death, His teach- ings, has still a fascinating charm, and, as it has been truly said, " While man sins and suffers, while there is blood-tinged sweat upon his brow, while there is weep- ing in his home and anguish in his heart, that voice can never lose its music which brings forth the com- fort and inspiration of the gospel, which tells the sin- tormented spirit the tale of the Infinite pity, and bids Pi i>2 CHRIST, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. it lay its sobbing wretchedness on the bosom of the Infinite love." Finally, let me remind you all that shortly we shall go heiiC^ But whither? If we have accepted the Divine Saviour we shall go to dwell in heaven, where the glowing pi jphecy shall have its perfect fulfilment: " The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." We shall pass out of the shadows into the city of which "God and the Lamb are the light thereof." ^he0l0ijtal anion oi 'Bkiovk antoerBttg. OFFICERS FOR 1887-88. President . Rev. E. I. Badgley, LL.D., Cobourg. Vice-President Rev. J. C. Antliff, D.D., Montreal Secretary-Treasurer. .Uev. A. M. Phillips, B.D., St. Marvs Lecturer/or 1888. . . .Rev. N. Burwash, S.T.D., Cobourg Preacher for 1888. . . .Rev. W. S. Pascoe, D.D., Exeter ^^"^*^^^* I^^^s F. H. Wallace, B.D., Wm". Williams, D.D., A. M. Phillips, B.D. London Conference Branch. President Rev. J. V. Smith, London. iiecretary. Treasurer. .Rev. G. H. Thompson, Lambeth Lecturer for 1887. . . .Rev. W^ Quance, Birr. Niagara Conference Branch. President Rev. Alex, Burns, D.D., LL.D Hamilton Secretary-Treasurer.. liEY. G. A. Mitchell, B.A., Tilsonburg Lecturer for 1887. . . . Rev. S. J. Hunter, D.D., Hamilton. Guelph Conference Branch. President . Rev. i ., Ayles worth, LL. D. , Mount Forest. Secretary- Treasurer. .Rev. A. M. Phillips, B.D., St. Marvs Lecturer for 1887. . . .Rev. John Scott, M.A., Walkerton. ' Toronto Conference Branch. President Rev. Geo. Washington, M.A., Mono Road. Secretary-Treasurer. .Rev. R. N. Burns, B.A., Gravenhurst Lecturer for 1887 i Bay of Quinte Conference Branch. President Rev. T. J. Edmiscn, B.D., Rednersville. Secretary-Treasurer. .Rev. O. R. Lamlly, M.A., Stirline Lecturer for 1887. . . .Rev. F. H. Wallace, B.D., Peterboro'. Montreal Conference Branch. President Secretary-Treasurer, .Rev. S. D. Chown, Sydenham. Lecturer for 1887 Manitoba Conference Branch. President . Rkv. J. W. Bell, B.D., Carberry. secretary -Treasurer. .Rev. B. Franklin, Portage la Prairie Lecturer for 1887 ... . r « iwxie. 54 MEMBERS ENROLLED. MEMBERS ENROLLED, 1886-87. LONDON Andrews, G. W., B.A. Austin, B. F., M.A., B D. Aylesworth, I. B., LL.D. Blatchford, T. N.,B.A. Bryers, William. Bunt, W. C. Butt, W. H. Clement, Benjamin. Cobb, Thomas. Coupland, T. B. Couzens, C. C. Edwards, W. W. Edwards. Abel S. Fallis, Jo^iU G. Ferguson, John A. Ford, J. E. Ford, W. J., LL.D. *Fowler, Robert, M.D. Freeman, John B., B.D. Freeman, John W., B.D. Gane, Wm. H. George, T. T. Godwin, William. Graham, James. Griffin, M. Gundy, Joseph R. Hamilton, L. D. Harris, A. G., F.T.L. Holmes, E. Holmes, John. Holmes, J. E. Hunter, J. E. Ivison, J. A. Jackson, George. Kerr, George J. CONFERENCE BRANCH. Lanceley, Ebenezer. Langford, Alexander. Livingstone, James. McDonagh, William. McNair, Thomas R. Middleton, Eli. Neelands, John. Parker, William R., D.D. Parsons, R. C. Pascoe, W. S. Philp, Joseph. Pomeroy, William M. Quance, William. Reynolds, John. Rigsby, Walter. Russell, A. L., B.D. Ryckman, E. B., D.D., F.T.L. Scott, E. E. Scott, John G. Shaw, W. H. Shepherd, W. W. Smith, John V. Staples, S. G., B.A. Stacey, Frank B. Sutherland, D. G., LL.B. Teeter, Chancellor. Thompson, George H. Treleaven, Richard J. Waddell, Robert H., B.A., B.D. Ward, Joseph, B.A. Warner, R. I., M.A. Whiting, James. Wilson, Jasper, B.A. Wells, C. P. Ames, William. Archer, Joseph. Athoe, Thos. Balmer, William J. NIAGARA CONFERENCE BRANCH. Barraclough, Wm. Boyd, Thomas. Brethour, D. *Brock, Thomas. * Deoeaaed. MEMBERS ENROLLED. 55 Brown, Thomas J. Burns, Alex., D.D.,LL.D., P. T.L. Burns, Robert, Ph.B. Cassidy, Francis A., B.A. Chalmers, D. Clark, George. Clarke, Edward J. Clarke, Thomas R. Cleaver, Solomon, B.A. Colling, Thomas, B.A. Collins, James H. Cookman, Christopher. Cooley, John W. Elliott, Robert J. Emory, Vernon H. Fairchild, J. P. Ferguson, George. Foote, James G. Gee, A. L. Goodwin, James. Hall, Harvey M. Hazlewood, J. H. Hobbs, Richard. Hockey, John E. Holden, S. W. Hooker, Le Roy. Hunter, S. J., D.D. Hunter, William J., D.D. Jackson, Thomas W. Jamieson, W. S. Johnston, C. O. Kay, John. Kearns, D. Kettlewell, William. Laird, James. Lanceley, John E. Laycock, John. Livingston, H. G. Maitland, Robert R. Maxwell, William J. McCartney, J. H. Mitchell, Georga A., B.A. Mooney, James. Moore, T. A. Morrow, Charles R. Robinson, John H. Rose, Samuel P. Ross, James S., M.A. Rowe, Richard B. Russ, Amos E., M.A. Saunders, John, M.A. Sifton, John W., B.A. Snider, David W. Stevenson, E. B., B.A. Stewart, John. Taylor, David H. Truax, A. Voaden, Thomas. Wakefield, John. Watson, William C, M.A. Webb, James. White, James H. Whitworth, E. Williams, J. A., D.D., P. T.L. Wilson, Samuel. Woods worth, Richard W. Wright, Robert W. Young, George, D.D. GUELPH Ayers, Walter. Baugh, William. Bielby, William M. Bowers, A. A., B.A. Broley, James. Buggin, George. Burwash, N. Campbell, Thomas M. Casson, Wesley. Chown, E. A., B.D. Colling, Joseph S. CONFERENCE BRANCH. Cornish, George H. Crane, Isaac. Cunningham, A. Davy, R. Edmunds, S. C, B.D. Edwards, Samuel H. Fisher, John S. Fydell, Thomas R. Galloway, J. Gilpin, John W. Griffin, W. S., D.D. 56 MEMBERS ENROLLED. Hall, Robert H. Hannon, James. Hartley, George. Harris, James. Henders, R. C. Henderson, William C, M.A. Holmes, Joseph W. Hough, J. G. Howell, Jacob E., M.A. Isaac, John R. Kenner, John. Leach, J. J. McAlister, J. McCullough, Andrew M. McDowell, David C. McLachlan, James, B.A. Mills, William. Noble, James J. Nugent, F. E. Ottawell, W. Pepper, John, B.z\. Phillips, A. M., B.D. Phillips, Robert. Pomeroy, J. C. Potter, A. Richardson, George. Robinson, J. W. Rupert, E. S., M.A. Salton, S. T. Sanderson, J. W. Scott, John, M.A. Sellery, Samuel, B.D. Sherlock, Benjamin. Shilton, J. W., B.A. Smith, A. E. Smith, John T. Smythe, W. Sparling, Philip. Sparling, W. W. Snowdon, T. G. Stafford, Charles E. Swann, Frank. Teskey, Ebenezer. Thibadeau, A. Tonge, A. W. Turk, George R. *Turner, John. Walker, J. Webster, John. Williams, R. W. TORONTO Addison, Peter. Barkwell, J. H., B.A. Bark well, W. J., B.A. Barrass, Edward, M.A. Bedford, John. Benson, Manly. Bishop, G. J. Blackstock, W. S. Briggs, William, D.D. Brown, George. Brown, G. M. Brown, W. P. Burns, R. N., B.A. Cannom, G. W. Clarke, R. Cochran, George, D.D., P.T. Conron, M. B. Chapman, J. A., M.A. Courtice, A. C, B.D. Cullen, Thomas. CONFERENCE BRANCH. Dewart, E. H., D.D., F.T.L. Eby, C. S., D.D., F.T.L. Galbraith, W., B.A. German, John F., M.A. Goodman, John. Gray, James. Griffith, Thomas, M.A. Hare, J. J., M.A. Harper, E. B., D.D. Harper, H. Harris, J. Hewitt, G. A., B.A. Hicks, W. T. Hill, L. W., B.A. Hill, Newton. L. Hunt, John. Idle, D. Jeffery, Thomas W. Johnston, Hugh, B.D. Jolliffe, T. W? * Deceased. MEMBERS ENROLLED. 57 Langford, Charles. Large, J, W. Liddy, James. Locke, J. H. Longley, B., M.A. Madden, W. W. Manning, H. M., B.A. Matthews, H. S. McClung, J. A. McDonalc. D., M.D., F.T.L. Meacham, G. M., D.D., F.T.L. Metcalfe, J. F. Philp, S. C, Jr. Pirritte, William. Redditt, J. J. Reid, Thomas R. Richard, A. Roberts, E. Rothwell, W. Shorey, Sidney J. { Simpson, C. A. I Simpson, G. M. I Sing, Samuel. Stafford, E. A., LL.B., F.T.L. Stewart, J. VV. Sutherland, Alex., D.D., F.T.L. ; Thorn, James. Thompson, G. Van Wyck, J. A., B.A. Vickery, John. Washington, George, M.A. Washington, William C. Wass, J. B., M.A. Webber, G. Whittington, R., M.A. Wilkinson, J. M., B.A. Williams, Thomas. Withrow, W. H., D.D. Young, Egerton R. W. Beatty, LL.B. T. Hardie, Esq. G. M. Long, Esq. LAYMEN MEMBERS. M. S. Begg, Esq. J. T. Moore, Esq. BAY OF QUINTE CONFERENCE BRANCH. Adams, R. N. Ash, John C. Badgley, E. L, LL.D. Baker, E. N., B.A. Balfour, D. Bates, M. J. Bell, J. B. Buchanan, Wm. Burns, Wm. Burwash, N., S.T.D., F.T.L. Campbell, A. Campbell, A. R. Clarkson, J. B. Copeland, G. H. Courtice, R. T. Curts, James. Drew, N. D. Dyer, W. R. Edmison, Thomas J., B.D. Elliott, William, B.A. Eves, Edward. Howard, E. E. Jeffers, W., D.D., F.T.L. Johnston, William. Jolliffe, William. Lambly, 0. R., M.A. Leach, J. J. Leitch, Robert H. Lewis, E. D. Mallett, R. Martin, A. McAuley, S. McCamus, D. N. McFarlane, James. McMullen, James. Nelles, S. S., LL.D., F.T.L. Ostrom, H, E. F. Pearson, M. L. ' Rice, John J. Robinson, George, 58 MEMBERS ENROLLED. Roger, AUin. Scott, William L. Taylor, R. Thomas, Henry. Tomblin, William. Tovell, I. Tozeland, James. Tucker, W. B. Wallace, F. H., B.D. Watch, C. W. Williams, Daniel. Williams, Wm. Wilson, A. C, F.T.L. Wilson, James P., M.A. Workman, G. C, M.A. Young, Joseph. Young, William J. Young, W. R. MANITOBA CONFERENCE BRANCH. Adams, G. R. Argue, Thomas. Barltrop, A. J. Bell, J. W., B.D. Betts, J. F. Beynon, T. B., B A. Bridgman, W. W. Chisholm, J. Colwell, S. E. Craig, R. H. Crichton, Charles. Dyer, W. T. Finn, F. M. Franklin, B., B.A. Halstead, William. Hames, A. B. Harrison, J. M. Kenner, Henry, Lawson, Thomas. Laidley, R. B. Long, G. H. McLean, John, B.A. Peters, George. Robinson, J. N. Ross, A. W. Rutledge, W. L. Ruttan, J. H. Stewart, A., B.D. Wilson, T. B. Woodsworth, James. MONTREAL CONFERENCE BRANCH. Allen, James, B.A. Antliflf, J. C, D.D. Awde, James, B.A. Beaudry, Louis N. Bland, H. F. Bond, Stephen. Card, S. Carson, W. W. Chown, S. D. Constable, T. W. Crane, E. W. Eldridge, G. S. Elliott, James, D.D., F.T.L. Feek, R. G., B.A. Galbraith, William, B.C.L. Hall, William, M.A. Hardie, A. Haylock, J. J. Henderson James. Huxtable, G. G. Jackson, William. Kines, James. Knox, William. Lawson, James. Lett, F. G. McGill, William. . McRitchie, George. Phillips, S. G., M.A. Philp, John, M.A. Pitcher, J. T. Porter, G. H., B.A. Poyser, G. T., F.L.T. Robertson, A. G. Saunders, J. B. Scanlan, J. Service, William. Shaw, W. I., LL.B. Short, W. K., M.A. MEMBERS ENROLLED. 59 Sparling, J. W., M.A., B.D. Sparling, W. H., B.A. Timberlake, William, F.T.L. Watson, James. Whiteside, A. Williams, T. G. Wilson, J., B.A. JACKSON SOCIETY, VICTORIA COLLEGE, COBOURO. MEMBERS. Avison, R. N. Bayley, H. E. Beynon, R. Birks, A. K. Booth, K. Brown, C. W. Crookshanks, J. , Culver, H. H. Ellis, W. J. Empey, A. W. Frizzell, J. W. Garbutt, R. J. Garnham, W. H. Hicks, J. B. Holmes, J. Houck, J. D. Irwin, A. J. Kelly, S. G. Kemp, J. M. Kerby, G. W. Larmour, J. M. Leonard, Thomas. Lewis, J. G. Livingston, S. G. Mahood, H. W. L. McLaughlin, J. F. Moore, C. I. D. Mussell, J. A. Osborne, H. S. Osterhout, A. B. Quinn, S. Ryerson, H. Saunby, J. W. Wallwin, I. B. Watts, A. 0. Wilson, M. E. DOUGLAS SOCIETY, WESLEYAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, MONTREAL. MEMBERS. Baldwin, C. D. Bartley, T. E. Brown, S. R. Caldwell, H. Caldwell, J. M. Carpenter, G. Davis, E. Deeprose, C. S. Duke, W. A. Finch, C. W. Francesco, C. Galley, F. Howitt, W. Hunt, G. S. B.A. Johnston, G. F. Kerruish, T. L. Kneeland, J. A. Lambly, W. B. Medd, E. Richardson, P. L. Shaw, E. A. Stevenson, J. H. Thurlow, H. M. Tory, H. M. Truax, A. Walker, W. Wells, W. 60 Rev. Rev. Rev. *Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. *Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. Rev. MEMBERS ENROLLED. "FELLOWS" IN THEOLOQICAL LITERATURE. S. S. Nelles, D.D., LL.D Cobourg. N. BuRWASH, S.T.D Cobourg. W. Jeffers, D.D Belleville. S. D. Rice, D.D Toronto. J. Elliott, D.D Kingston. h. H. Dewart, D.D Toronto. E. B. Ryckman, D.D London A. Burns, D.D., LL.D Hamilton. L. A. Stafford. B.A Toronto. W. W. Ross, M. A IngersoU. J. A. Williams, D.D Toronto. George Cochran, D.D Japan. George C. Poyser ...'..'.'. Sydenham. D. McDonald, M.D Japan C. S. Eby, M. a Jajan! George M. Meacham, M. A Toronto. William Timberlake Aylmer East. Alex. G. Harris '. Leamington. A. C. Wilson Oakwood. MEMBERS READING FOR "FELLOWSHIP." Second Year. Rev. J. R. Isaac. Rev. J. H. Robinson. Rev. Thomas Cobb. Rev. S. D. Chown. Rev. James Watson. First Year. Rev. William Knox. Rev. W. H. Gane. Rev. A. Whiteside. Rev. C. Teeter. Rev. A. E. Smith. Rev. John Weir. ♦ Deceased. FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 61 FINANCIAL STATEMENT, 1886-87. Receipts. Balance in hand as per last account $330 05 London Conference Branch 23 50 Niagara Conference Branch , 21 50 Guelph Conference Branch 32 00 Toronto Conference Branch 20 00 Bay of Quinte Conference Branch 19 00 Montreal Conference Branch 13 00 Manitoba Conference Branch No returns Total $459 05 Expenditure. Book Room Account, 1885-86 $161 76 Rev. E. B. Harper, Expenses as Preacher, 1886 . . 12 40 Secretary Treasurer, Expenses at Annual Meeting 6 77 Postal and Express Charges and Telegrams 1 40 T? 1 X. A ^1^2 33 Balance on hand 276 72 Total $459 05 Liabilities. Book Room Account, 1886-87 $277 18 Secretary-Treasurer, Expenses at Annual Meeting 13 75 Total , $290 93 Balance of Liabilities over Assets $14 21 N.B.— The privileges of membership are conditioned upon enrohnent. and the payment of an annual fee of ^^l. All who pay the membership fee are entitled to a copy of the "Annual Lecture and Sermon" and the "Lectures on Preaching." Annual Fees paid in the " Jackson " and " Douplas" Societies are accepted m lieu of the Annual Fee of the " Union," and entitle the members to all the privileges of membership. * 62 COURSE OF READING. COURSE OF READING FOR FELLOW IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE (F.T.L.). The Course of Reading is to extend over tln-ee years and to consist of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, or Apologetic studies. The character of the Course shall be optional, i.e., the subjects or branches of study may be elected by each one reading ; Provided, that two subjects shall be read for each year, one to be selected at the beginning of the Course and continued throughout, and the other varied from year to year. The thoroughness of the reading will be tested by a thesis on each subject, of a minimum length of at least twelve octavo pages of 250 words each, to be assigned by the first of February and forwarded by the first of April to the Examiners ; a written report of the examination of the thesis to be in the hands of the Secretary by the first of May, who shall report results to the candidates. All per- sons reading must send application for subject of thesis to the Secretary by the first of January, stating the year in which they are reading, the Course subject, the option selected, and the books read. Each subject should be studied in at least two authors, from a comparison of which an independent opinion may be formed ; and a student must put in at least one thesis each year until the Course is completed. COURSE OF STUDY. (J8 COURSE OF STUDY. FIRST YEAR. 1. Biblical