170 cnuRcn unity 



of the Church in the light of those various 

 faiths and civilizations and philosophies 

 amid which it came to have its beginning, 

 we shall see how Catholic and not Angli- 

 can, or Roman, or Genevan, was its basis, 

 and how heavenly and not earthly was its 

 spirit. 



IV. And this brings me to another con- 

 sideration which demands our grateful 

 recognition in connection with the subject 

 of Christian unity, and that is what I may 



\ call the growth of the historic instinct. 



I No one can review the origin of those vari- 

 ous religious bodies, which have arisen 

 since the Reformation, without recognizing 

 how significantly they witness to an awak- 

 ening of some of the deepest spiritual in- 

 stincts in those who were responsible for 

 their inception, and, no less, to a profound 

 conviction that some one aspect of Christian 

 faith or practice was, more than any other, 

 or all others, essential to the integrity of 

 the Christian fellowship. But from such 

 a position the step was not always a long 

 one to another and very different position, — 

 a position which substantially disassociated 

 them from other and no less essential char- 

 acteristics of the Christian Faith and Order, 



