We have so far been concerned with influences making for a deeper sense of unity within the Christian Church.  But if we attempt a wider survey, we shall discover that religious thought and feeling in the West, whether definitely Christian or no, possess some common characteristics, bear the impress of convictions which are ever struggling for expression.

First among these characteristic features of religious thought in the West I would place faith in the solidarity of mankind.  The origin of this faith probably passes beyond our analysis.  I should suspect that there is a universal impulse stimulating this belief which I should be inclined to regard as instinctive.  Yet it has certainly found fuller expression in the West than in the civilization of India or China.  It is possible to point to traditions, to philosophies, and to particular events which have carried this faith in human solidarity deep into the consciousness of the West.  Dr. Prichard, whose scientific labours, we were told in an earlier lecture, refuted the heresy of polygenism, was moved to undertake his inquiries by a desire to maintain the accuracy of the Mosaic tradition as to the common origin of mankind.  It is a little curious to reflect that illusory anthropology, accepted on the authority of Moses and of Rousseau, the belief in Adam, and the belief in the free and happy savage, have perhaps done more than scientific research into primitive culture to maintain our faith in human brotherhood and equality.  We must not, however, attach too much weight to the story of Adam.  The Western sense of the dignity of ordinary manhood owes much more to the great Stoic conception of humanity, as Mr. Barker reminded us in his lecture on the Middle Ages.  Perhaps even more significant is the feeling for humanity engendered by regarding all men as the objects of a common redemption.  The poorest of men have been protected from their fellows where they have been recognized as brothers for whom Christ died.  It would be worth while, if one had the time and the knowledge, to follow the growth of this sentiment in modern times, to trace the influence of the doctrine of Natural Rights, of the French Revolution, of the philosophy of Comte, and of the Evangelical Revival, upon its development.  But whatever the sources and phases of its growth, the existence and strength of this faith in humanity are undeniable.  It is this faith which compels us to refuse to think of Western civilization as merely Western.  For we believe that the West holds in trust for mankind, not only a right knowledge of nature, not only a correct scientific method, but also an essential conception of the worth and unity of human life.  Whatever we are to gain from the East, this is one of the gifts we bring to the other half of the world.