J. Baxter Langley, Esq., said—
I congratulate myself that in assembling for the sixth time to continue these services, under the title of Sunday Evenings for the People, and I am sure you will unite in congratulating me on the fact that the attendance of those whom I see around me in such large numbers, indicates that these services meet an obvious want of the people of London. It has been my custom to notice in my opening address some of the events of the preceding week, and though on this platform we know no politics, and have no antagonism to any established creed, it is my duty to recognise the fact that on Monday evening when the Minister of the Crown brought forward the pro gramme of the Session ; he alluded to a condition of things which I think germaine to the matter which we in assembling here have in hand, and which has a bearing on what we have undertaken here. The passage is as follows:—
"Since 1832 this country has, no doubt, made great progress; but it is during the last ten years that that progress has been most remarkable. I will not now attempt to inquire into the particular causes that have brought about this great advance, but It think I may say there is one sovereign cause which is at the bottom of everything, we suggest, and that is, the increased application of science to social life. (Hear hear.) We are all familiar with the material results which that application of science has produced. They are prodigious, but in my mind the moral results are not less remarkable. That revolution in locomotion which would strike us every day as a miracle if we were not familiar with it, has given to the great body of the inhabitants of this country in some degree the enlightening advantages of travel. The mode in which steam power is applied to the printing press in this country produces effects more startling than the first discovery in the loth century. It is science that has raised wages ; it is science that has increased the desires and the opportunities of labour; it is science that has enobled labour."
Here we have sought to erect a Church for the future. Recognizing the advantage of the services in the ordinary churches, we feel that they do not meet the exigencies of the people at large. There is too much disposition to regard science as antagonistic to religion; but here we make science the handmaid of religion. We do not seek to oppose the churches, but we seek to supplement them; and since literature and the fine arts have an elevating and enobling effect on all who come in contact with them, we seek to supply, by the aid of the most eminent men in every branch of science, the information which cannot fail to be valuable, leaving you to apply the truths which they will teach; and asking you to unite with us in seeking to develope our organization, which in the future shall produce greater results than we can even foresee in the present.