The two most important subjects of discussion at the Con-
gress have been that on the first evening, concerning the adequacy of "sceptical culture" to take the place of Christian faith in relation to the moral life of society ; and that of Wednesday, on the relation to each other of different parties in the Church ; and the former subject was treated by at least one speaker, Professor Waco, with real power, but the latter began and ended in nothing but words about candour and toleration. Professor Waco 'argued that from the purely sociological point of view,—that view which treats right and wrong as merely the principles yielded by an inductive study of the laws of the growth and progress of 'human societies,—the duties of the individual are derived from the needs of the society,—" the individual was and ought to be the product of a society,"—so that to raise the individual above the level of the society was, "to say the least, incurring a great risk of misdirecting the true line of dexelopment,a which could not be known till it was known how the whole mass was destined to move. Sceptical culture, therefore, does not prcifess to work, except tentatively and gropingly, at the elevation of the individual above the general social level ; but Christian faith does, and by fixing its 'eyes on a standard of individual perfection, offers a lever to social improvement of which the sociologists cannot avail themselves. The paper was both thoughtful and candid, and far above the level of ordinary Church-Congress effusions.
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