Address.

The President said—As the matters relating to the condition and prospects of the congregation to which we belong will be communicated to this meeting through the medium of the annual report which will be read this evening, I shall not occupy your time by any detailed reference to them, but I may perhaps be permitted briefly to offer the result of such reflections as have occurred to me on the bearing and influence which the growth and extension of the principles by which this and other similar constituted religious bodies profess to be guided, may be expected to have on the moral and religious aspect of the age in which we live. In the first place then, my friends, notwithstanding the many obstacles which are often not very worthily offered to our progress, we can congratulate ourselves on the fact that we are free—mentally and spiritually free; and if to this remark it be replied, as it will probably be by many, "So are all Protestants free," I say that so long as the name of dissenter carries with it any reproach, so long as the term Free Thinker is permitted to cast a stigma on any man to whom it is applied, and so long as a change of religious opinion, as the result of a fidelity to conscience, causes a man to be branded as an infidel, there can be no freedom for that large class of persons, who, having arrived at what they believe to be a clearer perception of their true relation to God, dare not disclose their convictions, lest they should bring upon themselves the enmity and persecution of those who adhere, outwardly at least, to the so-called orthodox and popular belief. I am sure that I need scarcely remind my hearers that there is an immense number of persons in this condition, and that the revelations of science and the advancing spirit of inquiry are tending daily to swell that number; and it is, moreover, not difficult to conjecture what kind of influence will be likely to be exerted over the destinies of mankind by those who, having lied to their consciences and to their God, find little difficulty in their dealings with men in carrying out to the fullest extent the debasing principles of selfishness and falsehood. In making this statement, which, to some, may seem of rather a comprehensive and, perhaps, a sweeping character, I would wish to offer one qualification. I am conscious that there are individuals, who, from motives of the purest and most tender character, refrain from imparting to those nearest and dearest to them, the religious conclusions at which they have themselves arrived, but whilst believing, as I do, that the religious utterances of any intelligent, true, and earnest man cannot be productive of evil, I must look upon page 6 the reticence to which I have alluded as a grave error. Freedom to think, to speak, and to act openly on the highest subject that can engage our thoughts, lies therefore at the root of all true religion, and the demoralising effect of an enslaved condition of the mind in this respect, is seen and exemplified in the history of nations as well as of individuals. The events which, during the last few months, have startled and horrified the whole civilised world, could never have transpired in any country where the principles of Christianity really held any sway, for it would not then have been possible to obtain the blind and brutal assent of truly Christian men to enter upon a deliberately organised system of human slaughter at the fiendish instigation of one man. The most complete religious organisation, as far as relates to forms and ceremonies, was nevertheless in full operation in the country in which these atrocities have occurred, and infidelity in the true sense of that term has long prevailed amongst a very large proportion of its people. Let us, therefore, my friends, show less anxiety for the furtherance of our views as a means of improving our worldly position, than to cultivate and preserve individually that spirit of freedom by which alone the heart can appreciate and the conscience can direct the most solemn duties of our lives.