“disputed” in the synagogues with the Jews, and from the days of
saintly Martyn (not to say Raymond Lull), until now, the Christian
missionary has been compelled by the very force of circumstances
to vindicate the honor of Christ and establish the evidences of
Christianity by means of controversy. When, in July, 1864, the Turkish
government persuaded Sir Henry Bulwer to sign the death-warrant to all
missionary work among Moslems in the Turkish empire by the memorandum
that made controversy a crime, the fact was immediately recognized.
Rev. J. Ridgeway, then the editorial secretary of the Church Missionary
Society, wrote an able paper in the _Church Missionary Intelligencer_
on the theme: “_Missionary work as regards Mohammedans impossible
if controversy be interdicted._” “By controversy,” he wrote, “we
understand not acrimonious and irritating recriminations, which, well
aware how unbecoming and injurious they are, the missionaries have
always eschewed, but that calm investigation of conflicting religious
systems that is indispensable to the decision of the important
question—which is true and which is false?”[154]
It is only in this sense that controversy is justifiable; and this kind
of controversy, whether by the printed page or word of mouth, has not
proved unfruitful of good results. Sir William Muir gives a complete
synopsis of all Mohammedan attacks on the Christian faith and the
replies made in defence of Christianity; his criticisms of the books
in question are also of great interest.[155] Since that date there
have been new attacks and new apologies both from the Moslem side and
from that of the missionary. As a plough breaks up the soil before the
seed is sown so this kind of literature and argument will often break
up the fallow ground of Moslem hearts for the seed of God’s Word. Even
awakened fanaticism or active opposition is more hopeful than absolute
stagnation of thought and petrifaction of feeling. How to awaken the
Moslem conscience is the real problem.
It is less important to consider the attitude of the Turkish rulers
toward Christians than the attitude of the Moslem mind toward
Christianity, as regards Arabia’s evangelization. The prevailing
attitude of the Moslem mind, in any particular part of Arabia, toward
Christianity practically decides the fate of a convert. Were Moslems
all strictly adherent to their traditions and the law regarding
renegades from Islam, every convert would be a martyr and every
inquirer would disappear. The Ottoman code of Moslem law gives specific
directions for the trial and execution of the renegade from the faith.
“He is to have three distinct offers of life if he will return to the
faith and time for reflection, after each offer, is to be given him.
If he remains obdurate he is to be executed by strangulation and then
his head is to be cut off and placed under his arm. His body is thus
to be exposed three days in the most public place.”[156] But, thank
God, Moslems do not strictly adhere to this law. In this, as in other
respects, many are better than their religion and superior to their
prophet. Converts in that part of Arabia which is under English rule or
protection are as safe as they are in India; which does not mean that
they are entirely free from persecution. In Turkish Arabia the law is
carried out by secret murder, or by banishment; yet not in every case,
for even there inquirers and converts, if not active or prominent,
have remained for a time unmolested. What the result would be in the
independent Moslem states of Arabia we do not know yet.
The Berlin Treaty was intended to be the Magna Charta of Christian
liberty in the Turkish empire, but the Turk has not kept the compact.
Its provisions were too galling for Moslem pride and prestige; reforms
never got beyond the paper stage. The massacres of 1894 to 1896 proved
that the Sultan is still the Pope of a religious fraternity and king
of a political empire based on the forty-seventh chapter of the Koran:
“When ye encounter the unbelievers strike off their heads until you
have made a great slaughter of them.” And the inaction of all the
Christian powers at that time proved that it is vain to put confidence
in princes. But in spite of all possible government opposition or even
the martyrdom of every individual convert “so long as the door of
access to individual Mohammedans is open, so long it is the clear and
bounden duty of the church of Christ to make use of its opportunities
for delivering the gospel message to them.”
The attitude of the Arab mind is not universally hostile to
Christianity. The vast majority are indifferent to religion in any
form. “What shall we eat and what shall we drink and wherewithal
shall we be clothed,”—is the sum of all their thoughts. The Arab
merchant serves Mammon with all his heart seven days a week. Religion
is an ornament and a conventionality; he wears it like his flowing
overgarment and it fits him just as loosely. He thinks it scarcely
worth while to discuss questions of belief. Every one has their own
religion, is a remark one often hears in Arabia. It is a faint echo
of the all-embracing tolerance of the days of ignorance when three
hundred and sixty idols, including an image of Christ and the virgin,
filled the Kaaba!
Then there are some thoughtful men who know better,—seekers after
truth,—and who feel that there are strong points in Christianity and
weak points in Islam which have not been duly considered. One meets
examples of this class everywhere in all stations of life and in most
unexpected quarters. In the heart of Yemen I met a Mullah who had a
wonderful knowledge of the Arabic Bible; and the copy he showed me
was an imperfect translation by Richard Watson dated 1825! Another
prominent Mohammedan in Eastern Arabia recently expressed his opinion
that the Christ of the New Testament never intended to found a new
religion, but to introduce everywhere _spiritual_ worship of the God of
Abraham; he said that a long and independent study of the Bible had led
him to this opinion.
The steady increase of the circulation of Scriptures in Arabia is
also an indication which way the current is drifting. Rev. George E.
Stone, a few weeks before his death, writing of the Bible circulation
at Muscat said, “I don’t know when the explosion is coming but we are
getting the dynamite under this rock of Islam and some day God will
touch it off.” The Bible in Arabia will indeed prove its power in
changing the entire attitude of the Moslem mind. “Is not my word like
as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces?——”
Finally there is the problem of securing the right men for the work.
So hard is the field in many ways and so hard are Moslem hearts that
the description of Aaron Matthews’ ideal missionary for the Jews would
apply to the Arabs as well, (the last clause omitted). He wrote:
“A Jewish missionary requires Abraham’s faith, Job’s patience, the
meekness of Moses, the strength of Samson, the wisdom of Solomon, the
love of John, the zeal of Paul, the knowledge of the Scripture of
Timothy, and a little bit of Baron Rothschild’s pocket.” The financial
part of the equipment is not essential on the part of the missionary;
he should be content with food and raiment. The less display of Baron
Rothschild’s pocket the better, in a land where people go to bed hungry
and where all live in the greatest simplicity.
The candidate for missionary work in Arabia should have a strong and
sound constitution. He should know how to “rough it” when necessary;
the more of the Bohemian there is in his nature the better. He should
have both ability and dogged determination enough to acquire the
Arabic language. Other scholarship is useful but not necessary. To
get along well with the Arabs he should have patience. And to avoid
wearing himself out, a good temper; a man with a very hot temper could
never stand three seasons in the Persian Gulf. Regarding spiritual
qualifications I cannot do better than quote the solemn words at
the close of General Haig’s paper on “Arabia as a mission-field.” I
believe they deserve to be repeated not only for the sake of those who
_send_ missionaries to Arabia, but for the sake of those who _are_
missionaries to Arabia. It is a high ideal.
“Given the right men, and Arabia may be won for Christ; start with the
wrong men, and little will be accomplished. But what qualifications are
needed! what enthusiasm, what fire of love, what dogged resolution,
what uttermost self-sacrificing zeal for the salvation of men and the
glory of Christ! But upon this point I prefer to quote here the words
of a man who is preëminently qualified to speak upon the subject. Three
years ago he wrote to me:
“‘Unless you have missionaries so full of the spirit of Christ that
they count not their own lives dear to them, you will probably look
in vain for converts who will be prepared to lose their lives in the
Master’s service. In a relaxing tropical climate, like that of Aden,
circumstances are very unfavorable for the development of self-denying
character, or of energetic service. No small amount of grace would
be needed to sustain it; for we are compound beings, and there is a
wonderful reaction of the body upon the soul, as well as of the soul
upon the body. It is supremely important, then, in an enterprise
like yours, to have the _right stamp_ of men—men who have made some
sacrifices, and who do not count sacrifice to be sacrifice, but
privilege and honor—men who do not know what _discouragement_ means,
and men who expect great things from God. Such alone will prove really
successful workers in a field so replete with difficulty. Unless
Eternity bulks very largely in the estimation of a man, how can he
encourage a native convert to take a step that will at once destroy
all his hopes and prospects of an earthly character, and possibly
result in imprisonment, and torture, and death itself? and unless you
have men who are prepared, should God seem to call for it, to lead
their converts into circumstances of such danger and trial, it is not
very likely that they will find converts who will go very much in
advance of themselves. Men of this stamp are not to be _manufactured_;
they are God-made. They are not to be _found_; they must be God-sought
and God-given. But the Master who has need of them is able to provide
them. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.’”
”_Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust forth
laborers into His harvest._”
XXXVI
OUTLOOK FOR MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS IN ARABIA
“Take it at its very worst. They are dead lands and dead souls, blind
and cold and stiff in death as no heathen are; but we who love them
see the possibilities of sacrifice, of endurance of enthusiasm of
_life_, not yet effaced. Does not the Son of God who died for them
see these possibilities too? Do you think He says of the Mohammedan,
‘There is no help for him in his God’? Has He not a challenge too
for your faith, the challenge that rolled away the stone from the
grave where Lazarus lay? ‘Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst
believe thou shouldst see the glory of God? Then they took away the
stone from the place where the dead was laid.’”—_I. Lilias Trotter_,
(missionary to Algiers).
Two views are widely prevalent regarding the hopelessness of
missionary work among Moslems generally, and although these views are
diametrically opposite they are agreed that it is waste of time and
effort to go to Mohammedan lands, that it is a forlorn hope at best.
The first view is that of those who are themselves outside of the
kingdom, and who shut its doors against the Moslem, saying: Experience
has proved it to be not only useless but dangerous to meddle with the
Moslem and his religion. Their faith is good enough for them; it is
suited to their ways. They do not worship idols and have a code of
morality suitable to the Orient. Mohammed was a prophet of God and
did all that could be done for these kind of people. Every attempt to
convert them ends in failure. Let them alone. Islam will work out its
own reformation. Some, like Canon Taylor and Doctor Blyden, who profess
to be Christians, even consider Islam the handmaid of Christianity and
specially fitted for the whole Negro race.[157]
The opposite view is that Mohammedanism is not too hopeful to be
meddled with but too hopeless! They who hold it profess to believe in
the Holy Ghost as the Lord and Life-Giver for the _heathen_ world, but
hesitate when it comes to Islam. The Moslem is, they say, wrapped up in
self-righteousness and conceit; even those whose fanaticism is overcome
dare not accept Christ. It is better to go to the heathen who will
hear. Missions to the Moslem world are hopeless, fruitless, useless.
It is impossible to Christianize them and there have been few, if any,
converts.
That both of these views cannot be correct is evident, since they are
contradictory. That the first is false the whole history of Islam
demonstrates. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” But what of the
other view, held by so many, that we need not expect large results
where there is so little promise?
Professor J. G. Lansing, one of the founders of the Arabian mission,
wrote in 1890: “If the smallness of the number of converts from
Islam to Christianity be pointed out, this argues not so much the
unapproachability of Moslems as the indifference and inactivity of
Christians. The doctrine of fatalism commonly accredited to Islam, is
not one-half so fatalistic in its spirit and operation as that which
for thirteen centuries has been practically held by the Christian
Church as to the hope of bringing the hosts of Islam into the following
of Jesus Christ.” Is it possible that the lack of results complained
of has been really a _lack of faith_? Hudson Taylor remarked a few
years ago, “I expect to see some of the most marvellous results within
a few years in the missions to Islam, because of this work especially
the enemy has said: It is without result. God is not mocked.” Has the
apostle to China read the signs of the times aright?
Neither God’s Providence nor His Word are silent in answer to that
question. First we have the exceeding hopefulness of results of recent
missionary work in many Moslem lands; then the sure promises of God
to give His Church the victory over Islam; and lastly the many
exceeding great and precious promises for Arabia the cradle of Islam in
particular.
1. It is not true that there have been no conversions among Moslems.
In India alone there are hundreds who have publicly abjured Islam
and been received into the Christian Church. The very first native
clergyman of the Northwest Provinces was a converted Mohammedan.
Sayad Wilayat Ali of Agra suffered martyrdom at Delhi for Christ.
Mirza Ghulam Masih of the royal house of Delhi became a Christian and
Abdullah Athim, the valiant-hearted of Amballa embraced the faith. At
the Chicago Parliament of Religions Dr. Imad-ud-Din, himself a convert
from Islam and a voluminous controversial writer, read a paper on
Christian efforts among Indian Mohammedans; this paper gives the names
of one hundred and seventeen prominent converts from Islam, mostly from
the Punjab. Beside these, the author says, “there are all sorts and
conditions of men, rich and poor, high and low men and women, children,
learned and unlearned, tradesmen, servants, all kinds and classes of
Mohammedans whom the Lord our God hath called into His Church.” It is
officially stated that quite one-half of the converts from among the
higher classes in the Punjab are from amongst Moslems.
In Persia there have been martyrs for the faith in recent years and
several have been baptized. In the Turkish empire there have been
scores of converts who have been obliged to flee for their lives
or remain believers in secret. At Constantinople a congregation of
converted Moslems was gathered by Dr. Koelle, but man after man
disappeared—no doubt murdered for his faith. In Egypt there have been
scores of baptisms and among others a student of Al Azhar University
and a Bey’s son confessed Christ. One has only to turn over the leaves
of the Church Missionary Society annual reports to read of Mohammedans
being baptized in Kerachi, and Bombay, Peshawar, Delhi, Agra, and on
the borders of Afghanistan. In North Africa where the work is very
recent there have been conversions and in one locality a remarkable
spiritual movement is in progress among the Moslems.
In Java and Sumatra the Dutch and Rhenish missionary societies have
labored with remarkable success among the Mohammedan population. At
four stations of the Rhenish Mission is Sumatra where the work is
practically altogether among Moslems, (namely, Sipirok-Simangumban,
Bungabonder, Sipiongot, and Simanasor) the total number of church
members according to the _Bombay Guardian_, is three thousand five
hundred and ten. The total number of baptisms from Islam in these
stations was during 1897 sixty-nine, and during the first half of 1898
already ninety-seven baptisms were reported. In some of the villages
where formerly Islam was predominant it has been expelled altogether.
The total number of Battak Christians amount to thirty-one thousand,
the largest part of whom were formerly Moslems.[158] In some parts of
Java still larger results are claimed.
In most Moslem fields it is absolutely impossible to obtain accurate
statistics of the number of conversions for obvious reasons. The
threatened death-penalty demands great caution in exposing a convert
by freely publishing the fact of his conversion. Everywhere there are
multitudes of secret believers whose names are sometimes not known even
to the missionaries. Any one who has read the lives of Moslem converts
such as that of Kamil or Imad-ud-Din or who knows from books like
“Sweet First Fruits” what it means for a Moslem to forsake the faith
of his fathers, knows that work in Moslem lands must not be judged by
baptismal statistics.
There are other indications of spiritual life entering the Moslem
world. There are thousands of Mohammedan youth receiving instruction
in Christian mission schools; in Egypt, one mission has twenty-four
hundred and sixty-four Moslem pupils enrolled. The permeating power
of spiritual Christianity is again at work in the Levant as when Paul
and Silas made their missionary journeys. The old churches of the
East by their unfaithfulness were the occasion of the great apostasy
of Islam; _their revival is the pledge of its downfall_. There is now
an Evangelical Church in Persia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia
Minor. Bodies of living Christians in the midst of Islam; no wonder
that their power is beginning to be felt. The devil takes no antiseptic
precautions against a non-contagious Christianity. But Evangelical
Christianity is contagious, and the whole lurid horizon proclaims in
persecutions and massacres and raging oppositions everywhere that Islam
feels the power of Christian missions, even although they have only
begun to attack in a miserly and puny way this stronghold of Satan.
Regarding the character of Moslem converts Bishop Thoburn says: “I
believe that when truly converted the Mohammedan makes not only a
devoted Christian but in some respects will make a superior leader.
Leadership is a great want in every mission-field and the Mohammedans
of India have the material, if it can only be won for Christ and
sanctified to His service, out of which splendid workers can be made
in the Master’s vineyard.” Doctor Jessup voices the same opinion, “It
is not easy for a Mohammedan to embrace Christianity but history shows
that when he is converted the Moslem becomes a strong and vigorous
Christian.”
2. In the work of missions among Mohammedans as well as in that among
the heathen we have the assurance of final victory in the abundant
testimony of God’s Word. God’s promises never fail of fulfillment;
and those world-wide promises never are put in such a form as to
exclude the Mohammedans. The Bible tells us that many false prophets
shall arise and deceive many; but it does not for a moment allow that
the empire of Christ shall divide rule with any of them. “It pleased
the Father that in Him [Jesus not Mohammed] should all fullness
dwell.” “The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His
hands”—not into the hands of Mohammed. “God hath exalted Him and given
Him a name which is above every name ... far above all principality
and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not
only in this world but also in that which is to come.” “That at the
name of Jesus every” Mohammedan “knee should bow and every” Moslem
“tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.” The present may see Islam triumphant, but the future belongs
to Christ. Over against the lying truth “there is no God but God and
Mohammed is His prophet,” Christianity lifts the standard, “Who is he
that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God?” The Divinity of Christ, which Moslems deny, decides
the destiny of all world-kingdoms. Witness the present governments of
the Moslem world. “Be wise now therefore O ye kings, be instructed ye
judges of the earth ... kiss the Son lest He be angry and ye perish
from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.”
There is a failure among Christians to realize the number and
importance of the missionary promises in the Old Testament.[159] The
Great Commission was based on these exceeding great promises. The
nations were in God’s plan before they were on Christ’s program. And
is it not remarkable that nearly all of these Old Testament promises
are grouped around the names of countries which now are the centre
and strength of the Moslem world? “Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world.” Or will these promises of world-wide
import only stretch beyond Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria and Arabia,
not including those lands in God’s plan of redemption and dominion?
Is there not a special blessing in store for the lands that border
Palestine, when the Lord shall comfort Zion and restore all her waste
places? “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the earth. Whom the Lord of
hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the
work of My hands and Israel My inheritance.”
The Moslem world is in no _better_ condition and in no _worse_
condition than the heathen world as portrayed in the New Testament. The
need of both is the same; and the same duty to evangelize them; and the
same promise of God’s blessing on our work of witness. The Mohammedan
world is also without excuse (Rom. i. 20, 32), without hope (John iii.
36; Eph. ii. 12), without peace (Isaiah xlviii. 22), without feeling
(Eph. iv. 19), without Christ (Rom. xiii. 13, 14) as is the heathen
world. But no less is our responsibility toward them nor the power of
God’s love to win them.
It is the rock of Christ’s _Sonship_ which is the stone of stumbling
and the rock of offence to the Moslem mind. But it is this very rock
on which Christ builds His church; and the foundation of God standeth
sure. Writing on this subject Mr. Edward Glenny, the Secretary of the
North Africa Mission, well says: