ancient seats of Jerome and Chrysostom, and shrouds in darkness the
once bright and famous sees of Cyprian and Augustine, has been
disastrous every-where to liberty and progress, equally as it has
been to Christianity. And it is only as that eclipse shall pass
away and the Sun of righteousness again shine forth that we can
look to the nations now dominated by Islam sharing with us those
secondary but precious fruits of divine teaching. Then with the
higher and enduring blessings which our faith bestows, but not till
then, we may hope that there will follow likewise in their wake
freedom and progress, and all that tends to elevate the human
race.[80]
[Sidenote: No sacrifice for sin or redemptive grace.]
Although with the view of placing the argument on independent ground I
have refrained from touching the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, and
the inestimable benefits which flow to mankind therefrom, I may be
excused, before I conclude, if I add a word regarding them. The
followers of Mohammed have no knowledge of God as a _Father_; still less
have they knowledge of him as "_Our_ Father"--the God and Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They acknowledge, indeed, that Jesus was a true
prophet sent of God; but they deny his crucifixion and death, and they
know nothing of the power of his resurrection. To those who have found
redemption and peace in these the grand and distinctive truths of the
Christian faith, it may be allowed to mourn over the lands in which the
light of the Gospel has been quenched, and these blessings blotted out,
by the material forces of Islam; where, together with civilization and
liberty, Christianity has given place to gross darkness, and it is as if
now "there were no more sacrifice for sins." We may, and we do, look
forward with earnest expectation to the day when knowledge of salvation
shall be given to these nations "by the remission of their sins, through
the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."[p]
[Sidenote: Contrast between divine and human work.]
But even apart from these, the special blessings of Christianity, I ask,
which now of the two faiths bears, in its birth and growth, the mark of
a divine hand and which the human stamp? Which looks likest the
handiwork of the God of nature, who "hath laid the measures of the
earth," and "hath stretched the line upon it,"[q] but not the less with an
ever-varying adaptation to time and place? and which the artificial
imitation?
[Sidenote: Islam.]
"As a reformer, Mohammed did indeed advance his people to a certain
point, but as a prophet he left them fixed immovably at that point
for all time to come. As there can be no return, so neither can
there be any progress. The tree is of artificial planting. Instead
of containing within itself the germ of growth and adaptation to
the various requirements of time, and clime, and circumstance,
expanding with the genial sunshine and the rain from heaven, it
remains the same forced and stunted thing as when first planted
twelve centuries ago."[81]
[Sidenote: Christianity compared by Christ to the works of nature.]
Such is Islam. Now what is Christianity? Listen to the prophetic words
of the Founder himself, who compares it to the works of nature:
"_So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the
ground;_
"_And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should
spring and grow up, he knoweth not how._
"_For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear._"[r]
And again:
"_Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what
comparison shall we compare it?_
"_It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the
earth, is less than all seeds that be in the earth;_
"_But when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than all
herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the
air may lodge under the shadow of it._"[s]
[Sidenote: Islam the work of man; Christianity the work of God.]
Which is _nature_, and which is _art_, let the reader judge. Which bears
the impress of man's hand, and which that of Him who "is wonderful in
counsel, and excellent in working?"
In fine, of the Arabian it may be said:
"_Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed._"
But of Christ:
"_His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as
long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall
call him blessed._
"_He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river
unto the ends of the earth._
"_Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth
wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let
the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen._"[t]
FOOTNOTES:
[e] 1 Cor. vii, 21.
[f] Gal. iii, 26, 28.
[g] 1 Cor. vii, 22.
[h] Philemon 16.
[i] Matt. xix, 4.
[j] 1 Cor. vii, 3.
[k] 1 Thess. iv, 4.
[l] 1 Tim. v, 2.
[m] 1 Tim. ii, 9.
[n] 1 Pet. iii, 7.
[o] Luke ii, 10.
[p] Luke i, 77-79.
[q] Job xxxviii, 5.
[r] Mark iv, 26-28.
[s] Mark iv, 30-32.
[t] Psa. lxxii, 17, 8, 18, 19.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Barth.
[2] Bergaigne, in his able treatise, _La Religion Védique_,
insists earnestly on what he calls the "liturgical contamination of the
myths." See vol. iii, p. 320.
[3] R.V., ix, 42, 4.
[4] R.V., ix, 97, 24.
[5] The religion of the Indo-European race, while still united,
"recognized a supreme God; an organizing God; almighty, omniscient,
moral.... This conception was a heritage of the past.... The supreme God
was originally the God of heaven." So Darmesteter, _Contemporary
Review_, October, 1879. Roth had previously written with much learning
and acuteness to the same effect.
[6] Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v, 412.
[7] R.V., iii, 62, 10.
[8] The rites, says Haug, "must have existed from times
immemorial."--_Aitareya Brâhmana_, pp. 7, 9.
[9] Weber, _History of Indian Literature_, p. 38.
[10] Max Müller, _Ancient Sanskrit Literature_, p. 389.
[11] "The haughty Indra takes precedence of all gods." R.V., 1,
55.
[12] "These two personages [Indra and Varuna] sum up the two
conceptions of divinity, between which the religious consciousness of
the Vedic Aryans seems to oscillate."--Bergaigne, _La Religion Védique_,
vol. iii, p. 149.
[13] The meaning of the term is not quite certain. _Sessions_,
or _Instructions_, may perhaps be the rendering. So Monier Williams.
[14] For example, Wordsworth:
"Thou, Thou alone
Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits
Which Thou includest, as the sea her waves."
--_Excursion_, book iv.
[15] Or, the thing that really is--the [Greek: ontôs on].
[16] _Ekamadvitiyam._
[17] This illustration is in the mouth of every Hindu disputant
at the present day.
[18] Barth, p. 75.
[19] _Ekamadvitiyam._
[20]
Volui tibi suaviloquenti
Carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram
Et quasi Musæo dulci contingere melle.
[21] Dr. J. Muir, in _North British Review_, No. xlix, p. 224.
[22] _Miscellaneous Writings_ (Macmillan, 1861), vol. i, p.
77.
[23] But the truth is that every man is accounted a good Hindu
who keeps the rules of caste and pays due respect to the Brahmans. What
he believes, or disbelieves, is of little or no consequence.
[24] Yaska, probably in the fifth century B.C.
[25] Weber thinks that Christian elements may have been
introduced, in course of time, into the representation.
[26] His Ramayana was written in Hindi verse in the sixteenth
century.
[27] When Jhansi was captured in the times of the great mutiny
English officers were disgusted to see the walls of the queen's palace
covered with what they described as "grossly obscene" pictures. There is
little or no doubt that these were simply representations of the acts of
Krishna. Therefore to the Hindu queen they were religious pictures. When
questioned about such things the Brahmans reply that deeds which would
be wicked in men were quite right in Krishna, who, being God, could do
whatever he pleased.
[28] Born probably in 1649.
[29] Raja Narayan Basu (Bose), in enumerating the sacred books
of Hinduism, excluded the philosophical systems and included the
Tantras. He was and, we believe, is a leading man in the Adi Brahma
Somaj.
[30] Barth, as above, p. 202.
[31] So writes Vans Kennedy, a good authority. The rites,
however, vary with varying places.
[32] _Asiatic Researches_, v, p. 356.
[33] Cicero.
[34] We learned from his own lips that among the books which
most deeply impressed him were the Bible and the writings of Dr.
Chalmers.
[35] See _Life of Mohammed_, p. 138. Smith & Elder.
[36] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 172, where the results are
compared.
[37] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 341; Sura ii, 257; xxix, 46.
[38] The only exceptions were the Jews of Kheibar and the
Christians of Najran, who were permitted to continue in the profession
of their faith. They were, however, forced by Omar to quit the
peninsula, which thenceforward remained exclusively Mohammedan.
"Islam" is a synonym for the Mussulman faith. Its original meaning is
"surrender" of one's self to God.
[39] _Apology of Al Kindy, the Christian_, p. 18. Smith &
Elder, 1882. This remarkable apologist will be noticed further below.
[40] Principal Fairbairn: "The Primitive Polity of Islam,"
_Contemporary Review_, December, 1882, pp. 866, 867.
[41] Herr von Kremer, _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, unter den
Chalifen, vol. i, p. 383.
[42] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 9. Smith & Elder,
1883.
[43] Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chapter li, and _Annals of
the Early Caliphate_, p. 184.
[44] _Ibid._; and Sura xliv, v. 25. _We_--that is, the Lord.
[45] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 46.
[46] See, for example, Sura lxxviii: "Verily for the pious
there is a blissful abode: gardens and vineyards; and damsels with
swelling bosoms, of a fitting age; and a full cup. Lovely large-eyed
girls, like pearls hidden in their shells, a reward for that which the
faithful shall have wrought. Verily We have created them of a rare
creation, virgins, young and fascinating.... Modest damsels averting
their eyes, whom no man shall have known before, nor any Jinn," etc.
The reader will not fail to be struck by the materialistic character of
Mohammed's paradise.
[47] See Sura _Jehad_; also _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p.
167, _et. seq._
[48] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 105, _et. seq._
[49] See _Annals_, etc., p. 253.
[50] Sura ix, v. 30.
[51] So Jews and Christians as possessing the Bible are named
in the Koran.
[52] See _Annals_, etc., p. 213.
[53] _The Apology of Al Kindy_, written at the court of Al
Mamun A.H. 215 (A.D. 830), with an essay on its age and authorship, p.
12. Smith & Elder, 1882.
[54] _Ibid._, p. 34.
[55] _Apology_, p. 47, _et. seq._
[56] Alluding to the "_Ansar_," or mortal "Helpers" of Mohammed
at Medina. Throughout, the apologist, it will be observed, is drawing a
contrast with the means used for the spread of Islam.
[57] _Apology_, p. 16.
[58] _Apology_, p. 57.
[59] I am not here comparing the value of these observances
with those of other religions. I am inquiring only how far the
obligations of Islam may be held to involve hardship or sacrifice such
as might have retarded the progress of Islam by rendering it on its
first introduction unpopular.
[60] See Sura ii, v. 88.
[61] Sura iv, 18. "Exchange" is the word used in the Koran.
[62] Each of his widows had 100,000 golden pieces left her.
_Life of Mohammed_, p. 171.
[63] "These divorced wives were irrespective of his concubines
or slave-girls, upon the number and variety of whom there was no limit
or check whatever."--_Annals_, p. 418.
[64] Lane adds: "There are many men in this country who, in the
course of ten years, have married as many as twenty, thirty, or more
wives; and women not far advanced in age have been wives to a dozen or
more husbands successively." Note that all this is entirely within the
religious sanction.
[65] _Pilgrimage to Mecca_, by her highness the reigning Begum
of Bhopal, translated by Mrs. W. Osborne (1870), pp. 82, 88. Slave-girls
cannot be _married_ until freed by their masters. What her highness
tells of women _divorcing_ their husbands is of course entirely _ultra
vires_, and shows how the laxity of conjugal relations allowed to the
male sex has extended itself to the female also, and that in a city
where, if anywhere, we should have expected to find the law observed.
[66] In India, for example, there are Mohammedan races among
whom monogamy, as a rule, prevails by custom, and individuals exercising
their right of polygamy are looked upon with disfavor. On the other
hand, we meet occasionally with men who aver that rather against their
will (as they will sometimes rather amusingly say) they have been forced
by custom or family influence to add by polygamy to their domestic
burdens. In Mohammedan countries, however, when we hear of a man
confining himself to _one wife_, it does not necessarily follow that he
has no slaves to consort with in his harem. I may remark that
slave-girls have by Mohammedan laws no conjugal rights whatever, but are
like playthings, at the absolute discretion of their master.
[67] The case of the Corinthian offender is much in point, as
showing how the strict discipline of the Church must have availed to
make Christianity unpopular with the mere worldling.
[68] [Sidenote: Laxity among nominal Christians.]
_Apology_, p. 51. I repeat, that in the remarks I have made under this
head, no comparison is sought to be drawn betwixt the morality of
nominally Christian and Moslem peoples. On this subject I may be allowed
to quote from what I have said elsewhere: "The Moslem advocate will urge
... the social evil as the necessary result of inexorable monogamy. The
Koran not only denounces any illicit laxity between the sexes in the
severest terms, but exposes the transgressor to condign punishment. For
this reason, and because the conditions of what is licit are so
accommodating and wide, a certain negative virtue (it can hardly be
called continence or chastity) pervades Mohammedan society, in contrast
with which the gross and systematic immorality in certain parts of every
European community may be regarded by the Christian with shame and
confusion. In a purely Mohammedan land, however low may be the general
level of moral feeling, the still lower depths of fallen humanity are
unknown. The 'social evil' and intemperance, prevalent in Christian
lands, are the strongest weapons in the armory of Islam. We point, and
justly, to the higher morality and civilization of those who do observe
the precepts of the Gospel, to the stricter unity and virtue which
cement the family, and to the elevation of the sex; but in vain, while
the example of our great cities, and too often of our representatives
abroad, belies the argument. And yet the argument is sound. For, in
proportion as Christianity exercises her legitimate influence, vice and
intemperance will wane and vanish, and the higher morality pervade the
whole body; whereas in Islam the deteriorating influences of polygamy,
divorce, and concubinage have been stereotyped for all time."--_The
Koran: its Composition and Teaching, and the Testimony it bears to the
Holy Scriptures_, p. 60.
[69] [Sidenote: Alleged progress of Islam in Africa.]
Much loose assertion has been made regarding the progress of Islam in
Africa; but I have found no proof of it apart from armed, political, or
trading influence, dogged too often by the slave-trade; to a great
extent a social rather than a religious movement, and raising the fetich
tribes (haply without intemperance) into a somewhat higher stage of
semi-barbarism. I have met nothing which would touch the argument in the
text. The following is the testimony of Dr. Koelle, the best possible
witness on the subject:
"It is true the Mohammedan nations in the interior of Africa, namely,
the Bornuese, Mandengas, Pulas, etc., invited by the weak and
defenseless condition of the surrounding negro tribes, still
occasionally make conquests, and after subduing a tribe of pagans, by
almost exterminating its male population and committing the most
horrible atrocities, impose upon those that remain the creed of Islam;
but keeping in view the whole of the Mohammedan world this fitful
activity reminds one only of these green branches sometimes seen on
trees, already, and for long, decayed at the core from age."--_Food for
Reflection_, p. 37.
[70] _Apology_, p. 34.
[71] _Annals_, pp. 61, 224.
[72] Sura iv, v. 33.
[73] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 348.
[74] _The City of God_, p, 91. Hodder & Stoughton, 1883.
[75] _The Turks in India_, by H.G. Keene, C.S.I. Allen & Co.,
1879.
[76] _Annals_, etc., p. 457.
[77] See Sura xxxiv, v. 32. The excepted relations are:
"Husbands, fathers, husbands' fathers, sons, husbands' sons, brothers,
brothers' sons, sisters' sons, the captives which their right hands
possess, such men as attend them and have no need of women, or children
below the age of puberty."
[78] John xviii, 36, 37.
[79] Dr. Fairbairn, _Contemporary Review_, p. 865.
[80] _The Early Caliphate and Rise of Islam_, being the Rede
Lecture for 1881, delivered before the University of Cambridge, p. 28.
[81] _The Koran_, etc., p. 65.
Transcriber's Note: The following section was originally at the
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