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Excerpt from A Description of Christianity Criticised: Being a Paper by the Late Rt. Hon. The Lord O'neill, Read at the Annual Meeting of the Victoria Institute, 25 June, 1883, by the Lord Bishop of Derry
Mr. S. Smith, m.p. - I am very glad to be here to-night, to second this motion and to testify the strong feeling of interest which I have in this society. This is the first occasion upon which it has been possible for me to attend any of our meetings, but I have received our very valuable Journal for several years, and, so far as I have been able, I have read the papers therein. I think this society has been doing a very good work in this country and'in this age. No one who carefully observes the pro gress of Opinion can doubt that there has been a great growth of wild, infidel, and atheistic opinions in this country of late years. I Often feel somewhat depressed and alarmed in noticing the strong tide which is running in favour of agnosticism, and the denial of all that we have hitherto con sidered most sacred. Perhaps these opinions have not yet entered very deeply into society, but we cannot ignore the fact that they are held by many able, intellectual men, and by some men whom we have been in the habit of looking up to as leaders in science, in letters, and in philosophy, and that they are sinking down into what are called the lower classes, with very pernicious effects. It came to my knowledge not very long since that doctrines which are destructive of the very foundations of, morality and civilisation are being advocated by certain bodies. They have probably gained as yet the adhesion of comparatively but a few but, at the same time, I am afraid that they will spread. Whenever the ground has been pre pared for them by the destruction of man's sense of reverence and responsi bility to God, the progress is very rapid towards anti-social doctrines. See what is going on in another country at this time. In the neighbouring country of France, and especially in the City of Paris, the foundations of morality are already to a large extent overthrown in the minds of the masses.
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