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1 a . I G . ac 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Division 
 
 Section 
 
 mi 
 
 LUZAO A OO. 
 
 Oriental Bookiellen uid 
 
 Pabliahen. 
 
 46, Gt. Russell Streeti 
 
 LONDON, W.C. 
 
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 11 
 
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 cr,^ , 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION: 
 
 BEING AN 
 
 HISTORICAL COMPARISON 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 BY 
 
 ABD I^A, .J^- ^.'.^-w^^^A---/ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY HOUSE, 
 
 SALISBURY SQUARE. 
 
 1865. 
 
W. M. WATTS, CROWN COURT, TEMPLE BAR. 
 
INTRODUCTIONS^ 
 
 Every believer in revealed religion knows that there is but 
 one hvincr and true God, the Creator of heaven and earth and 
 of all thino-s visible and invisible. To Him, therefore, as 
 their supreme Lord, all rational bemgs owe allegiance and 
 worship. This common relation of all men to their God and 
 Maker forms a bond of union between them which no one has a 
 right to disregard. Even if a man does not know God, his 
 duty remains the same ; for his very ignorance is culpable, 
 and he ought to know Him, and, by consequence, he ought to 
 know also the common relation just mentioned. But besides 
 this common dependence on the same Creator, which might be 
 called the spiritual or divine bond of union, there is also an 
 earthly or natural tie of brotherhood which all must acknow- 
 ledo;e. As every man, by virtue of his creation, has a right to 
 say, " God is my Lord," so also, because of his descent from 
 the first human couple, even the meanest and most despised 
 can affirm that Adam was his father and Eve his mother. In 
 this point of view the whole human race forms hut one large 
 family, and all men are brethren. 
 
 Accordingly, dear reader, though we have never seen or 
 heard of each other before, yet we are not absolute strangers, 
 but fellow-servants of the same Lord in heaven, and children 
 of the same common parents on earth. On account of this 
 double affinity, your weal or woe cannot be a matter of indiffe- 
 rence to me, and I trust you ivill not regard as an unwar- 
 rantable liberty this present exj^ression of my brotherly interest 
 in your ivelfare. If, then, on this ground it appears to be both 
 our privilege and duty to care for each other's temporal well- 
 being, and to do all that lies in our power to promote it, how 
 much more must the same principle hold good with regard to 
 the concerns of the soul and eternity ? INIust we not saj^, that 
 whoever is indifferent as to whether his fellow-men truly 
 believe in God, and have a well-founded hope of eternal hap- 
 piness or not, sadly neglects their best interests, whilst on the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 otlier liaiid, lie wlio does all he can to bring tliem to God and 
 heaven, is discharolno- the noblest of duties towards them ? 
 
 Moved by considerations like these, I venture to address a 
 few icords of truth and love to my Mohammedan brethren, on 
 a subject I well know they agree with me in thinking one of 
 the most important, solenm, and sacred, wdiich can occupy the 
 thoughts of man, viz. religion. My brother, whoever you may 
 be, reading these lines ; if, through the mercy of God, ^ve meet 
 one day in heaven, with what great pleasure shall I say to 
 you, " Come, let us together worship that God of love who 
 gave us our being, and graciously prepared us in that lower 
 world, that we might become partakers of His everlasting 
 blessedness !" Assuredly you will not then refuse me the 
 right-hand of fellowship, but will cordially respond, " Yes, my 
 brother, let us adore and praise our benign Creator, whose 
 love towards us even the ages of eternity cannot fully unfold." 
 You will say so, because alienation and distrust cannot exist 
 where the blessed dwell in the presence of their God. Is it 
 not, then, right and fitting — is it not a proof of heaven-born 
 love alread}^ here on earth — to converse about God, and the way 
 that leads to Him ? But if our intercourse is to be really pro- 
 fitable, we must speak according to truth, and our object must 
 be to apprehend God's truth more clearly, and grasp it more 
 firmly and fully, as well as to practise it more diligently. As 
 the claims of truth are paramount, every man ought to be 
 ready to submit himself to it. If, therefore, in the course of 
 our investigation, we become acquainted with divine truths 
 hitherto unknown to us, it is our duty to embrace them ; and 
 should we also arrive at the conviction that there are other 
 points we have held as of divine authority which have not 
 the characteristic and the claims of truth, then we must be 
 ready to renounce them ; for nothing ought to stand in the 
 way of that obedience which every man owes to the truth of 
 God when he knows it. Much better is it to suffer, and even to 
 die for God's truth, than to live in worldly ease and comfort 
 wdiilst trustino; in that which is not truth, and therefore cannot 
 
 CD 
 
 save. That is not true kindness which, seeing a brother in 
 dangerous error, does not w^arn him of it, for fear of disturb- 
 in o- his false peace, or giving him momentary uneasiness. The 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 spirit of geimine luve does not shrink from inflicting a wound 
 so salutary, knowing well there is an exquisite satisfaction to 
 the soul of man in the possession of truth, which compensates a 
 thousandfold for the doubts, fears, and ' difficulties which 
 must be overcome to reach that goal. Is he not then my real 
 friend, the man who shows me wherein I have been mistaken ? 
 The discovery of error is the first step on the way to truth. 
 And what more valuable service can one human being render 
 to another than helping him to a fuller and clearer apprehen- 
 sion of God's truth? It would argue a strange perversity of 
 spirit to feel otherwise than grateful for such an effort, espe- 
 cially if made in a courteous, brotherly manner. In short, to 
 dislike and hate a man because he seeks to throw some light 
 on our highest interests and most sacred duties would be such 
 a strange inversion of common sense and good feeling, that I 
 am confident my Moslem brethren will not blame me for dis- 
 missing any fears of this kind respecting them, and firmly 
 relying, in what I am about to say, on their willingness and 
 readiness to appreciate good intentions. 
 
 One of the first things that strikes a man in turning his 
 mind to the existing religions, is their great number and 
 variety. No nation has yet been discovered without some 
 kind of religion, or some object of worship. This indicates 
 plainly that man was originally created for God, and that he 
 cannot help feeling at times that there is a higher Being on 
 whom he depends, and to whom he owes something. But the 
 manner in which men seek to serve and worship God differs 
 most widely. There are heathen religions in which the priest 
 can take any piece of stone, wood, or iron, any feather, fruit, 
 or other thing, and consecrate it an object of worship for the 
 people. Some heathens are so degraded that they even wor- 
 ship Satan and the evil spirits, in order to propitiate them. In 
 other pagan lands God is worshipped under the symbol of 
 animals, such as cows, alligators, serpents, or that of fire and 
 light, or of the sun, moon, and stars. In India, besides the high- 
 est God, or Brahm, so many subordinate deities are worship- 
 ped, that if a man should attempt to count them, at the rate of 
 ten thousand an hour for ten hours per day, it would take 
 him upwards of eight years to enumerate them all. Others, 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 again, assert tliat themselves and all existing things together, 
 constitute the Deity. Now with these iWcrnutpolijthnstic and 
 jmnthehtic systems we will have nothing more to do on the pre- 
 sent occasion, as it is not supposed that, for any one reading 
 these lines, they can have the slightest attraction. Nor is any 
 attempt made to persuade us to embrace them. They only 
 show that man cannot live without God and without religion ; 
 so that, if he does not know the true God and the true 
 relio'ion, he will invent for himself false deities and false modes 
 
 of worship. 
 
 But besides these polytheistic or pantheistic, and therefore 
 erroneous and heathen creeds, there remain three religions 
 claiming an origin in a special divine revelation, and equally 
 professing the ivorship of the one true God, the Creator and 
 lord of all, vi-. the Jewish, the Mohammedan, and the Chris- 
 tiam* These three contain, in their monotheistic character, a 
 most essential element of the true religion. But as they also 
 differ from one another in many respects, and on most im- 
 portant questions, they cannot all be equally true ; and if we 
 do not wish to entertain the preposterous idea that all re- 
 ligions are false, and that in regard to his highest, i.e. his 
 religious wants, man is left entirely in the dark without the 
 unerrino- light of a divine revelation, we must allow that 07ie 
 of them is the true religion in the highest and absolute sense. 
 Now which of the three is it ? On this momentous question 
 we shall endeavour, by what follows, to enable the reader, 
 with the blessing of God, to arrive at a clear and well-founded 
 
 'to 
 
 conviction. 
 
 * By the terms Judaism and the Jewish religion is meant, in this 
 pamphlet, the religion taught in the Old Testament. How far this 
 ancient religion was the same as the now existing modern Judaism 
 is not here discussed. 
 
PART I. 
 
 RELATION BETWEEN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE DISPENSATION OF THE MOSAIC LAW FULFILLED AND SUPERSEDED 
 
 BY THE ECONOMY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JUDAISM SUPERSEDED BY CHRISTIANITY, AS SHOWN BY THE WON- 
 DERFUL VITALITY OF CHRISTIANITY, ITS CONVERTING EFFECTS, AND 
 TRIUMPHANT SPREAD NOTWITHSTANDING THE MOST FORMIDABLE 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 The Jewish religion is the oldest of the three in question. 
 If we date its origin from the giving of the Law on Mount 
 Sinai, in the days of Moses, it is more than fourteen hundred 
 years older than the Christian, and more than two thousand 
 older than the Mohammedan religion. From the time of the 
 giving of the Law to the coming of Jesus Christ, the people 
 of Israel, or the Jews, were the only worshippers of the one 
 true God, and all the other nations of the earth were sunk in 
 ignorance and idolatry. During that period, therefore, the reli- 
 gion of Israel was the only true religion in the world. But if this 
 is the case, — if the religion of Israel was once the only true one, 
 having been revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai (see 
 Ex. xix. &c.), — is then our question not answered already, and 
 ouo-ht not all Mohammedans and Christians to become Jews ? 
 By no means ; for it does not follow that what was once the 
 whole revealed truth of God is so still : on the contrary, there 
 was a growth and progress in revelation, as in every thing- 
 else, until completeness and maturity was attained. As God 
 created the world, not in one day, but in a succession of 
 days, so also did He reveal the whole of His saving truth not 
 at once, but gradually. At the call of Abraham, the great 
 ancestor of the Jewish nation, more than four hundred vears 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION 
 
 liad already elapsed since the deluge ; and between the call of 
 Abraham and the giving of the Law in the days of Moses, 
 again more than four hundred years passed away. God is 
 not dependent on' time, but time depends on Him. He can 
 well wait with His manifestations of mercy and judgment till 
 mankind is prepared for them, or till the right time is come. 
 The family of Abraham had first to be prepared by their great 
 affliction in Egypt and their miraculous deliverance from 
 Pharaoh, before God saw fit that they should receive His Law 
 from Sinai. So, likewise, ages of preparation had to pass away, 
 before the time of the coming of Messiah was fulfilled. And, 
 again, generations have come and gone since then ; and still the 
 day of judgment, wdiich will close the present order of things, 
 has not yet broken in upon us, because the world, in the eyes of 
 God, is not yet ripe for it. It seems, then, there is good reason 
 why God should not reveal His truth all at once, or at the 
 beginning of the world, but gradually, and after mankind, by a 
 long history and accumulated experience, has become pre- 
 pared for it ; and we must easily perceive it to be possible that, 
 when God sends a further revelation, men should sin against Him 
 and His truth, by rejecting the later revelation under the pre- 
 tence of clinging to that which had been revealed before. Now 
 it appears that this is actually the sin of which the Jews have 
 made themselves guilty ; for when the Messiah came, and 
 proved, by His holy life no less than by His might}^ words and 
 works, that He was sent from heaven, only a few thousand 
 Jews glorified God by believing in Him, whereas the nation 
 at large refused to receive the Gospel, and the Pharisees, or 
 leaders, said, " We know that God sj)ake unto Moses, but we 
 know not whence Jesus is." (John ix. 29.) By thus rejecting 
 the Messe7iger of God, icho spoke to them not Hisowii words, Ijut 
 those of the heavenly Father that had sent Him (John xii. 49, 
 50), the Jeivs separated themselves from the true religion ; 
 and instead of still being God's favoured people, they have 
 been banished from their own country, and are scattered 
 among all nations, as a punishment for their unbelief and sin. 
 It is therefore plain, that although the Jews had once the 
 true religion, and although they still hold the truth that 
 " there is no God but one," yet now their doctrine is mixed 
 with error and their religion with unbelief. 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 9 
 
 Their rejection, then, of Christ, and the divine truth He offered 
 them, was a national crime zvhich a righteous God could not 
 hut visit luith a condign national ffunishment. Scarcely forty 
 years elapsed after that crime, ere God's judgments overtook the 
 Jewish nation in such a manner, that the towns and villages 
 of their land were destroyed, their temple was burnt, Jerusalem 
 was made a heap of ruins, most of their men were slain by the 
 sw-ord, or perished by famine and disease, and the remainder, 
 with the ^vomen and children, were scattered to the four quarters 
 of the globe. This was not done by Christians, but by the 
 heathen Romans, whom God employed as the instruments of 
 His vengeance. Since that time until now the Jews have 
 remained without government and country of their own, fre- 
 quently oppressed and generally despised by all the nations 
 among wdiom they are sojourning as strangers. The number 
 of Christians meanwhile steadily increased everywhere; though 
 fiercely opposed by the Jews up to the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, and afterwards relentlessly persecuted for several cen- 
 turies longer by the Roman emperors, who had cause, from 
 the rapid^spread of the new faith, to fear for idolatry, the 
 religion of the State. There were then two monotheistic reli- 
 gions face to face, the Jewish and the Christian ; the former 
 (evidently no longer the same with that which anciently bore its 
 name) but pow^erless, lifeless, productive only of the dead ^vorks 
 of an outward legality, substituting a multitude of ritual observ- 
 ances for a living and loving faith ; deprived of its sanctuary, 
 its divinely-ordained services and priesthood, yet failing to 
 discern that the time for those services was gone by; 
 professed by a dismembered people, still boasting of ancient pri- 
 vileges, yet unable to make any converts in the many coun- 
 tries^over which they were scattered : the latter, or the Christian 
 religion, on the contrary, full of life and power ; leading men 
 from a course of sin to a life of holiness ; transforming self- 
 righteous Pharisees into Immble and honest believers; enabling 
 tlie selfish to yield up their possessions and their life for the 
 good of others; imparting heavenly wisdom to the unlettered, 
 and undaunted courage to the timid ; spreading from city to 
 city, from country to country ; emptying the temples of the 
 idols, extinguishing the fire on their altars, gaining converts 
 
10 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 by its heart-conquering power from amongst the poor and the 
 rich, the simple and the learned, and, in less than three centuries, 
 mounting even upon the throne of the then mightiest empire 
 in the world. The Jews, whilst they had the power, were not 
 deterred by their religion from persecuting the Christians; 
 but the Christians were enabled by theirs to bear persecution 
 patiently, yea, even, as we are informed by the historians of 
 those days, to suffer death for their faith, — death in its most 
 cruel forms, by the sword, by fire, by water, by wild beasts, — 
 and tortures even worse than death, and not unfrequently to 
 meet their doom singing songs of joy and triumph with their 
 last breath, as if they were going to a wedding-feast, or to be 
 crowned as victors. To every thoughtful and unprejudiced 
 man it must, then, have appeared indubitable that Christianity 
 was the true means to lead the errinoj into the wav of truth, and 
 sinners into the path of righteousness ; that it was a heavenly 
 light, a divine gift, a life stronger than death, a power to 
 overcome the world by its own spiritual nature and influence, 
 without the aid of the sword or other worldly weapons ; and 
 tliat it was justhj entitled to take its place as God's revealed 
 truth, the religion destined for all mankind. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY FORETOLD AND EXPECTED IN THE OLD 
 
 TESTAMENT DISPENSATION. 
 
 If this much is clear from the triumphant spread of the new 
 religion, and the effects attending its reception in the hearts 
 of believers, an honest examination of its nature and evidences 
 can likewise not fail to demonstrate that it is a higher and 
 maturer form of the true religion than the Mosaic law which it 
 has superseded. The first observation we have to offer in this 
 place is, that Christ and Christianity did not appear without 
 due notice, hut that, on the contrary, in the sacred wrltimjs 
 of the Jews themselves there ivere explicit intimations^ or pro- 
 phecies, respecting the coming of a great Reformer under the 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 11 
 
 character of a Prophet, Priest, and King, and of a conseqtient 
 change in the national religion. We shall now note a few of 
 these prophecies. According to Deut. xviil. 18, 19, God said 
 unto Moses, " I will raise them up a jjruphet from among 
 their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words into his 
 mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command 
 him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not 
 liearken unto my Avords which he shall speak in m}^ name, I 
 will require it of him." The fulfilment of this prophecy can 
 be gathered from Acts iii. 22^26 ; Luke xxiv. 19 ; John iv. 
 ^^5,26; viii. 28; xii. 49, 50; xv. 15; Heb. ii. 3; iii. 1,2; 
 xii. 25. In Psalm ex. 4 we read the remarkable word ad- 
 dressed to one who was then still future, and who was to be 
 not only David's son, but at the same time his Lord (comp. 
 Matt. xxii. 42 — 45), " The Lord has sworn and Avill not 
 repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchi- 
 zedek." For the fulfilment of this word, see Lleb. v. 6 ; 
 vi. 20; vii. 1 — 25. Respecting the rogal dignity of the Mes- 
 siah expected by the Jews, we will quote a passage from the 
 book of the prophet Daniel, in which he says (Dan. vii, 13, 
 14), " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son 
 of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the 
 Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And 
 there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that 
 all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his domi- 
 nion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, 
 and his kino'dom that which shall not be destroved," The 
 fulfilment of this prophecy appears from passages such as 
 these— Matt. xxiv. 30; xxviii. 18 ; Eph. i. 20—22 ; Rev. i. 7; 
 xi. 15; xiv. 14; xix. 11 — 16. The following is one of those 
 Scriptures in which it is plainly foretold that the form of 
 the true religion should not remain the same to the end of time, 
 hut that it should undergo an important amelioratioji — "^ Be- 
 hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
 covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of 
 Judah ; not according to the covenant that I made with their 
 fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring 
 them out of the land of Egypt ; which my covenant they brake, 
 although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord ; but 
 
12 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 this shall be the covenant that I will make with the honse of 
 Israel ; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in 
 their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will he 
 their God, and t^iey shall be my people. And they shall 
 teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his 
 brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, 
 from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the 
 Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember 
 their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi. 31—34.) Now if these and 
 similar prophecies w^ere not contained in the sacred writings 
 of the Jews, they would have had a plausible excuse for not 
 believing in Jesus Christ, for they could have said, " We know 
 that our religion came from God, and that Moses was His chosen 
 servant : how then could we believe in one who claims to be 
 even greater than Moses, or accept his religion, when God 
 had never told us in His word that a prophet should come, 
 or that the Law given by Moses should ever be superseded by 
 another more efficacious, and better adapted to the wants of 
 man ?" As it is, they are without excuse in rejecting Jesus 
 Christ, in whom all these predictions are fulfilled, and who 
 has brought in a complete redemption. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY xVCTUALLY AROSE AMONG THE PEOPLE OF 
 ISRAEL WHERE THE GROUND HAD BEEN PREPARED. 
 
 It appears, from the preceding observations, that Christianity 
 sprang from the bosom of the ancient Jewish faith, and was 
 its higher development, just as the boughs and branches of a 
 tree grow out of its stem and roots. God saw fit to withhold 
 the revelation of the Gospel until the ground had fii'st been 
 prepared for it by the Law ; and when He actually gave it. He 
 did so where the preparing process had been going on, namely, 
 among the people of Israel. This seems to deserve si)ecial 
 notice; for though we are unable fully to scan the works of 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 13 
 
 God, yet we reverently discern in this fact a reasonableness 
 that can hardly fail to approve itself to sound judgment. It is 
 what every one would reasonably expect, that the fullest divine 
 revelation should be made among the people'' where preceding 
 revelations had already prepared men's minds for it. Accord- 
 ingly, we are not only informed in the Gospel that Christ was 
 born in Bethlehem, the city of David {see Matt. ii. 1 ; Luke ii. 
 1 — 7), and grew up in Nazareth, a city of Galilee (Luke 
 ii. ^9. 51 j; but also, that during His public ministry He ex- 
 pressly declared that the offer of His salvation was first of all 
 to be freely made to the Jewish nation. So we read, e. g., in 
 Matt. X. 5, 6, that when He first sent forth the twelve 
 apostles to preach and to heal, He charged them in the following 
 words — -" Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city 
 of the Samaritans enter ye not ; but go rather to the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel." And on another occasion, when His dis- 
 ciples asked Him to heal the daughter of a Phoenician woman. 
 He replied, " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house 
 of Israel." (Matt. xv. 24.) It was only after a number of disci- 
 ples had been gathered among Israel, and they were qualified 
 by the descent of the Holy Ghost to become preachers of the 
 Gospel to other nations, that Jesus Christ ordained His religion 
 to be carried beyond the bounds of Judea, and to the ends of 
 the earth. {See Acts i. 3 — 8.) The subsequent history of Chris- 
 tianity plainly shows, that although the bulk of the Jewish 
 nation proved unbelieving, yet its Author had perfectly 
 succeeded in laying among the true Israelites a strong and 
 solid foundation of His church on which might be securely 
 built the vast and massive superstructure of the future. 
 
 ^j 
 
14 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Christ's divixe mission, as the founder of a new dispensation, 
 gloriously established by the proof of miracles. 
 
 The many miracles which Christ did, and which no one had 
 done before Him, were calculated to prove to the thonghtful 
 Jews, that, by embracing the spiritual religion which He 
 preached, they would only act in accordance with the will of 
 God. We read in the beginning of the book of Exodus, that 
 when God called Moses to be a prophet and dehverer to 
 Israel, He gave him power to work a number of miracles, both 
 before Israel and before the people of Egypt, so that they might 
 understand that he was a true messenger of God, and that the 
 relif^ion which he taucrht was a divine revelation. It is re- 
 markable, in the case of Moses, that he received no general or 
 indiscriminate power of working miracles, but that, on each 
 occasion, he was specially empowered and directed to act, and 
 that without such a special commission from God it would 
 appear he neither did, nor could, work any miracle. For 
 examples of these special directions, see Ex. iv. 2 — 9 ; viii. 5, 
 16. 20, 21 ; ix. 3. 8, 9. 22 ; x. 12. 21 ; xiv. 16. 26 ; xvii. 6, 
 &c. In consequence of these miracles which Moses did in the 
 name of the Lord, the people belie^'ed in him, as we read in 
 Ex. iv. 31 ; xiv. 31 ; and it was on the same account, and be- 
 cause the Lord knew him face to face, that we read in Deut. 
 xxxiv. 10 — 12, that among all the prophets in Israel he had 
 no equal in rank. Now if the Israelites believed in Moses on 
 account of the miracles he did, how much more cause had they 
 for believing in Jesus Christ, whose ministry could thus be 
 described by Himself, '•' The blind receive their sight, and the 
 lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead 
 are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to 
 them " {see Matt. xL 5) ; and of whom it is said in Mark iii. 10, 
 11, *' He healed many, insomuch that the people pressed upon 
 Him for to touch Him, as many as had plagues ; and unclean 
 spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him, and cried, 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 15 
 
 saying, Thou art the Son of God !" Not many days before 
 •His own death He called Lazarus out of tlic grave, though he 
 had been dead four days, by which time, according to the 
 natural course of things in that climate, decomposition would 
 have already begun. {See John xi, 39.) Surely we cannot 
 wonder that St. Peter, in addressing the Jews on one occasion, 
 described Him to them as " a man approved of God among you 
 by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did by Him in 
 the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know " (.see Acts ii. 
 22) ; and it is not too much to say, that neither before nor 
 since has there ever lived a man ivhose actions bore the same 
 impress of boundless beneficence and supernatural jpoicer. 
 Therefore He mio-ht well challeno;e the Jew^s in those wonder- 
 fully gentle and condescending words recorded in John x. 37, 
 38, " If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But 
 if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works : that ye 
 may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in 
 Him." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DIVINE REVELATION BY CHRIST AND THE GOSPEL PRESENTS A REAL 
 ADVANCE BEYOND THAT OF THE JEWISH DISPENSATION. 
 
 X 
 
 This subject would admit of almost an unlimited illustration ; 
 but, for the present, we shall restrict our comparison to si: 
 points, the first three bearing more particiJarly on our relation 
 to God and divine things, and the last three on our relation to 
 our fellow-men. 
 
 1. With regard to God. 
 
 Every attentive reader of the Bible must remark some diflPe- 
 rences between the views given to us of the Divine Being in 
 the Old Testament, and those which are supplied in the New. 
 I7i the old economy He is predominantly presented as the Al- 
 miglity Creator and Lord of all, or as the holy and righteous 
 Judge, or the benign and merciful Iluler of men, or (more parti- 
 cularly^ as the God of the people of Israel. In Ex. xx. 6Q, e. g.. 
 

 IG FOOD FOR REFLECTIOX. 
 
 God says, " I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and 
 fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto 
 thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." 
 And, in the 19th verse of the same chapter we read that the 
 people were so afraid of God that they said to Moses, " Speak 
 thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not God speak with us 
 lest we die." In Ps. xcv. 6, 7, we read, " O come, let us wor- 
 ship and bow down : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 
 For He is our God ; and we (i. e. especially we, the nation of 
 Israel,) are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." 
 It is true that the typical part of the Mosaic Law threw further 
 light on the divine attributes, and that the prophetical writings 
 contain intimations of the propitiation that the promised Mes- 
 siah was to effect, and of the glorious manifestation that would 
 thus be made of God's infinite love. But the typical and pro- 
 phetical teaching in its spiritual character seems to have been 
 but little understood by the nation generally, and they seem to 
 have contented themselves with the more elementary apprehen- 
 sions of the Divine Being stated above. In the New Tes- 
 tament, hoivever, God is pre-eminently known and adored as the 
 God of love, as our Father in Christ Jesus : an unquestionable 
 advance this from the mere recognition of an omnipotent Crea- 
 tor, or a moral Governor and Judge. In the pattern for 
 prayer which Christ gave to His disciples. He directed them 
 to address God as " Our Father which art in heaven." (See 
 Matt. vi. 9.) St. Paul writes to the Christians of Galatia, 
 " Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For 
 as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on 
 Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither 
 bond nor free, there is neither male nor female : for ye are all 
 one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abra- 
 ham's seed, and heirs according to promise." (Gal. iii. 16 — 29.) 
 And St. John, in the third chapter of his first Epistle, wrote 
 to the Christians of his day (v. 7, 8. 16), "Beloved, let us 
 love one another : for love is of God ; and every one that 
 loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, 
 knoweth not God, for God is love. He that dwelleth in love, 
 dwelleth in God, and God in him." But, besides this, the 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 17 
 
 Gospel clearly reveals to us ivhat in the Law is but darkly 
 intimated, namely, that the unity of the Godhead is not one of 
 poverty or dreary isolation ; but that, as the perfection of the 
 Divine Being consists in its matchless unity, so it also con- 
 sists in a richness and self-sufficiency of life, rendering God 
 absolutely independent of the world as to His own happiness 
 and glory, and unfolding, in three blessed Persons, the Father, 
 the Son, and the Ho^y Ghost ; and that these lliree Blessed 
 Persons, or Hypostases, who, in the absolute unity of their 
 Godhead, have created the universe with all it contains, both 
 visible and invisible, are also the efficient cause of the salvation 
 (f believing man from Satan, sin, and death. This tri-partite 
 existence of divine life, or this threeness of Persons in the one 
 Godhead, tvhich Christian diviiies have called ^^ Trinity,^'' is 
 undoubtedly revealed in the Gospel in those passages where 
 either to the Son or to the Holy Ghost divine attributes are 
 ascribed, or where the three blessed Persons are expressly 
 mentioned, see e.g. respecting the Son, John i. 1, "In the 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
 tlie Word was God" (comp. v. 14—17) ; and John v. 20—23, 
 *' For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things 
 that Himself doeth, and He will show Him greater works than 
 these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the 
 dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom 
 He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath com- 
 mitted all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour 
 the Son, even as thev honour the Father. He that honoureth 
 not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him." 
 The Holy Spirit is sometimes spoken of as sent to the believers 
 by the Father, e. g. in John xiv. 26, " The Comforter, which 
 is the yoly Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
 he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance Avhatsoever I have said unto you" (comp. also 
 John xiv. 16; Acts xv. 8; Gal. iv. 6); and sometimes as 
 sent by the Son, e, g. Acts ii. 32, 33, " This Jesus hath 
 God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, 
 being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received 
 of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed 
 forth this, Avhich ye now see and hear.'* (Comp. also John xv. 
 
 c 
 
? 
 
 \ 
 
 18 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 26 ; xvi. 7 ; xx. 22.) Of tliis Holy Spirit it is written in 
 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, that "He searcbeth all things, yea, the deep 
 things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, 
 save the spirit of'jnan which is in him? even so the things of 
 God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." The three 
 Persons of the blessed Godhead are all mentioned together in 
 Matt, xxviii. 19; 2 Cor. xiii. 14; 1 John v. 7. To each of 
 these Persons in the Godhead a share is ascribed in the salvation 
 of fallen mart. Of the Father it is said, in Eph. i. 4, that " He 
 hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world ;" 
 and in John iii. 16, that " He so loved the world, that He gave 
 His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." Of the Son it is said 
 that He died a sacrifice for our sins, in order to redeem us 
 from their guilt and power, and to reconcile us unto God. {see 
 Matt. XX. 28 ; 1 Tim, ii. 6 : Gal. iii. 13 ; 1 Pet. ii. 24 ; Col. i. 
 
 19 22.) And regarding the Holy Ghost, we are taught that 
 
 He sanctifies believers, and makes them, as it were, temples of 
 God. {See Rom. xv. 16 ; g Thess. ii. 13 ; 1 Cor. iii. 26 ; vi. 
 19, 20.) All this is well comprised in 1 Pet. i. 2, where the 
 true believers are called " Elect according to the foreknow- 
 ledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, 
 unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 
 2. With regard to worship. 
 
 The service or ivorshij) of God is much more elevated and 
 spiritual in the new economy titan in the old. The Law of Moses 
 contains a great many precepts concerning ritual defilement 
 and purification, the observance of certain times or places, of 
 different kinds of sacrifices, &c., as will be seen from a perusal 
 of the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Whereas in the 
 New Testament we read that Jesus, far from appointing a new 
 Kibla, or other needless observances, said to an inquiring 
 woman of Samaria, " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 
 when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, 
 worship the Father. But the true worshippers shall worship 
 the Fatlier in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such 
 to worship Llim." (John iv. 21. 23.) St. James writes in his 
 Epistle (i. 27), "Pure religion, and undefiled before God and 
 the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their 
 
 V, 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 10 
 
 affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." 
 According to the Gospel^ the service which God requires of us 
 does not consist mainly in a number of outward acts, such as 
 frequent ahlutions, public prayers, fasting, visiting of particular 
 temples, Sfc. ; but ivhai He requires of us, above all, is repent- 
 ance from sin, faith i7i Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, a 
 comj)lete change of mind, a conversion from sin to holiness, so 
 thorough and real that it can be called a " new or second birth,''"' 
 and then a ivhole life spent according to His ivill and for His 
 glory. Hence we read that both John the Baptist and the 
 Lord Jesus began their preaching by the exhortation, " Repent 
 ye, and believe the Gospel : for the kingdom of God is at 
 hand" {see Mark i. 15; Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17); and that the 
 Apostles likewise "went out and preached that men should 
 repent. {See Mark vi. 12, and comp. Acts ii. 38 ; iii. 19; 
 xvii. 30.) On one occasion Jesus Christ declared before the 
 Jews, " This is the will of Him that sent me, that every one 
 that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlast- 
 ing life : and I. will raise him up at the last day " {see John 
 vi. 40) ; and on another He assured one of their rulers, say- 
 ing, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
 ao;ain, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) St. 
 John writes in his first Epistle (v. 4), " Whatsoever is born of 
 God overcometh the world : and this is the victory that over- 
 cometh the world, even our faith." We are taus^ht that only 
 such faith leads to eternal salvation, whilst no man can be 
 saved by mere ceremonial observances and legal practices. 
 Thus, e.g. it is written in Gal. ii. 15, " Knowing that a man 
 is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of 
 Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we 
 might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works 
 of the Law : for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be jus- 
 tified." And that this savino; faith is not a dead and unfruit- 
 ful thino;, or consistent with a lifi3 of carelessness and sin, 
 appears with abundant clearness from a number of passages. 
 In 2 Pet. i. 5 — 8 we read, "Add to your faith virtue ; and to 
 virtue knowledge ; and to knowledge temperance ; and to 
 temperance patience ; and to patience godliness; and to god- 
 liness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness charity. 
 
 * C 2 
 
20 FOOD FOR REFLECTION, 
 
 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you tliat 
 ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." St. Paul writes to the Romans 
 (Rom. xii. 1), " I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
 that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
 unto God, which is your reasonable service;" and again to the 
 Corinthians (1 Cor. ix. 31), "Whether ye eat or drink, or what- 
 soever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Instead of prayer in a 
 certain place or at a certain hour, St. Paul recommends to the 
 Christians the spirit of prayer, or a life of prayer, by exhorting 
 them to " pray without ceasing." {See 1 Thess. v. 17. Rom. 
 xii. 12.) In the Epistle to the Hebrews (x. 1—14) the Chris- 
 tian view of sacrifices is thus expressed : *^ The law having a 
 shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the 
 things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered 
 year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 
 For it Is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should 
 take away sins. Wherefore Jesus Christ said, Lo, I come to 
 do thy will, O God, and by one offering of Himself (through 
 the eternal Spirit, Heb. ix. 14), He hath perfected for ever 
 them that are sanctified." We learn from this and similar 
 passages that the Levitical ceremonies foresliadowed the aton- 
 ing death of Christ and the blessings He bestows, and that 
 Avhen the realities are come, the types are no longer needed. 
 (See also Col. 11. 16, 17.) 
 
 3. With respect to the kingdom of God, 
 
 By the kingdom of God we mean the institutions which God 
 graciously connnenced on the earth for the purpose of reclaim- 
 ing mankind from the powder of sin and Satan, bringing them 
 into communion with Himself, and thus preparing them for 
 heaven. Now in this kingdom of God, or religious economy, 
 as It existed during the Mosaic dispensation, there was imtch 
 that had an exclusively national character. Israel was God's 
 chosen people (Ex. xix. 5 ; Deut. x. 15), a " kingdom of 
 priests," an ''holy nation" (Ex. xix. 6), and God even called 
 them His "first-born son." (Ex. iv. 22.) They were "the 
 children of the kingdom" (Matt. vili. 12; xxi. 43) ; and in their 
 temple at Jerusalem God had " caused His name to dwell" 
 as in no other place on earth (comp. Deut. xii. 5. 11, with 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 21 
 
 2 Cliron. vii. 16 ; and Neh. i. 9), whilst all other nations were 
 living in ignorance (Acts xvii. 30), and " suffered to walk in 
 then- own ways." (Acts xiv. 16.) Therefore, if any believing 
 Gentile wished to be recognised as a full meniber of the king- 
 dom of God, he had first, by circumcision, to be naturalized 
 in the Jewish community (Ex. xii. 48), which, priding itself on 
 its peculiar privileges, (Rom. ii. 16 — 20), despised utterly all 
 who did not undergo that initiatory rite. ( 1 Sam. xxxi. 4 ; 
 Eph. ii. 11.) But with the coming of Christ the kingdom of 
 God dropped its mere natio?ial character, or its exclusively 
 Jewish form and colourmg, and stood forth fully developed in 
 its universal and truly spiritual nature. His precursor, John, 
 told the Jews plainly, " Think not to say within yourselves, 
 We have Abraham to our father : for I say unto you that God 
 is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." 
 (Mat. iii. 2, 3, 9.) St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans (ii. 28, 29), " He is not a Jew which is one outwardly; 
 neither is that circumcision wdiich is outward in the flesh ; 
 but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is 
 that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter ; whose 
 praise is not of men, but of God." Circumcision as a religious 
 practice is entirely done away with in the Gospel, as seen from 
 Gal. V. 2, where the Apostle declares, " I say unto you, if ye 
 be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;" and from 
 Col. ii. 11, where he says to the Christians, ''In Christ ye 
 are also circumcised, with the circumcision made without 
 hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the fiesh by the 
 circumcision of Christ." Jesus Christ Himself states, " The 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation ; neither shall 
 they say, Lo here, or, lo there ! for behold, the kingdom of God 
 is within you'' (Luke xvii. 20, 21) ; and on another occasion,^ 
 '' 3Iy kingdom is not of this tvorld: if my kingdom were of 
 this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be 
 delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from 
 hence. For this cause came T into the world, that I should 
 bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth 
 heareth my voice." (John xviii. 36, 37.) St. Paul likewise 
 affirms, " In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any 
 thino-, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love " 
 
22 FOOD FOR REFLECTION 
 
 (Gal. V. 6.) ; and again, ^' The kingdom of God is not meat 
 and drink ; hut righteousness^ and peace , and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost:' (Rom. xiv. 17.) 
 
 4. On ItetaliaVion. 
 
 TliG Mosaic code contained what is called the law of reta- 
 liation. In case of a murder it recognised the nearest relative 
 of the person killed as his " avenger of bfood,'' or Goel, icliose 
 duty it was to kill the murderer. We read in Num. xxxv. 19, 
 ** The avenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer : 
 when he meeteth him, he shall slay him." And if an inten- 
 tional murderer had fled to the city of refuge, the elders of 
 his city were commanded in Dent xix. 12 to " send and fetch 
 him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of 
 blood, that he may die." Even wdth regard to other injury 
 inflicted, the law of retaliation was observed, as we gather 
 from Lev. xxiv. 19, 20, " If a man cause a blemish in his 
 neighbour, as he has done, so shall it be done to him : breach 
 for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth ; as he has caused a 
 blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again." Now 
 these regulations were designed for the guidance of the civil 
 magistrate, and we must not for a moment doubt that they 
 were perfectly suited to the purpose for wdiich they were 
 given ; but it is known from history that the Jews generally 
 were more enslaved to the letter of their law llian animated 
 by its spirit, so that the law of retaliation was often perverted 
 by them to justify private revenge." Jesus Christ therefore 
 found it necessary to declare, according to Matt. v. 38, 39, " Ye 
 have heard that it hath been said. An eye for an eye, and a 
 tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil : 
 but wdiosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him 
 the other also." The spirit of this precept He Himself exem- 
 plified in His OAvn conduct; for, accordingto 1 Peter ii. 23, 
 " When He was reviled. He reviled not again; when He, 
 suffered. He threatened not ; but committed Himself to Him 
 that judgeth righteously." The teaching of His apostles 
 breathes the same spirit of meekness and love. So St. Paul 
 writes to the Romans, " Dearly beloved, avenge not your- 
 selves, but rather give place unto wrath : for it is written. 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION 
 
 23 
 
 Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saitli the Lord" (Rom. xii. 
 19). And St. Peter, in his first Epistle (ii. 19 — 21), says, 
 '' This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God 
 endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, 
 when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? 
 but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, 
 this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye 
 called : because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ex- 
 ample, that ye should follow His footsteps." If it be asked. 
 Why were not these directions given with equal copiousness 
 in the Mosaic Law? it must be owned that we cannot always 
 explain the actions of the Most High ; but it may be suggested, 
 at the same time, that previously to the propitiatory death of 
 Christ there had not been so clear a discovery of the reconci- 
 liation between hatred of sin and compassion for the sinner, so 
 that if the same unlimited forgiveness of wrong-doing had then 
 been unreservedly enjoined, it might have led men to think 
 too lightly of the terribleness and malignity of moral and 
 spiritual evil. Still, whatever the cause may have been, there 
 must be recoo-nised in this respect a moral advance in the 
 New Testament as compared with the Old. 
 
 5. On the subject oi Slavery. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that, amongst the Israelites, 
 slaves enjoyed much more consideration and protection than 
 amongst the heathen ; for they were not only allowed but 
 enjoined to abstain from work on the Sabbath [see Deut. 
 V. 14), and to participate in the religious festival of the nation. 
 (Ex. xii. 44, Deut. xvi. 10, 11.) The nuirder of a slave was 
 punishable by law^ (Ex. xxi. 10) ; and if any master so severely 
 chastised a slave as to cause him a bodily injury, he was bound 
 to give him his liberty (Ex. xxi. 26, 27). In general, the 
 Israelites were recommeinled, in their dealings with their 
 slaves, to remember that they themselves had been bondmen 
 in Egypt. (Deut. xv. 12.) Nevertheless, the Law of Moses did 
 never bring about the ahoUshment of slavery as an institution, 
 but rather tolerated it, and allowed the bondage of aliens to be 
 severer than that of Israelites. (Lev. xxv. 39—46.) The 
 whole spirit and tendency of the Gospel, on the other hand, 
 is opposed to slavery, and directly tends to its abolition ; for 
 
\ 
 
 24 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 wliilst it makes man free in the higliest sense of the word, as 
 Clirist said to the Jews, " If the Son shall make you free, ye 
 shall be free indeed " (John viii. 36\ it also enjoins the rule, 
 " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
 do ye even so to them." (Matt. vii. 12.) No rank or position is 
 to exclude a man from the blessings of the Gospel, which are 
 equally attainable to all who believe and are baptized, as we 
 read in Gal. iii. 26 — 28, " Ye are all the children of God by 
 faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been bap- 
 tized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew 
 nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
 nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Although it 
 was no purpose of Christ to revolutionize the world by at once 
 authoritatively prohibiting the slavery then existing every- 
 where, yet His teaching tended directly to lead to its abolition 
 by sure though slow degrees. Emancipation from the power 
 of sin and Satan is so great a boon, that St. Paul felt it could 
 make even slavery endurable, and yet he advises every Chris- 
 tian slave to seek his liberty, when he can fairly do so, as the 
 servile state was inconsistent with his new standing as a free- 
 man in the Lord Jesus Christ. This we learn plainly from what 
 is written in 1 Cor. vii. 21 — 23, " Art tliou called, being a ser- 
 vant, care not for it ; but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. 
 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's 
 free-man: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's 
 servant. Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants 
 of men." This tendency of Christianity has also been mani- 
 festly unfolded in the course of history ; for in ivhatever land 
 the Gosjpel of Jesus Christ ivas believed and obeyed, there also 
 slavery was jirst ameliorated, and then altogether abolished. 
 
 6. On Polygamy and Divorce, 
 
 Although the Law of Moses protected the rights of women 
 more than the laws of most heathen nations, yet it left the 
 power of divorce in the hands of the husband, who was still 
 legally permitted to send away his wife, if she did not "find 
 favour in his eyes," as we read in Dent. xxiv. 1,2," When a 
 man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it cometh to 
 pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found 
 some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 25 
 
 divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her ont of his 
 house. And when she is departed out of liis house, she may go, 
 and be another man's wife."* It may also be stated in favour 
 of the Mosaic Law, that it put some check upon the abuse of 
 this powder of the husband, by prohibiting him from taking- 
 back, under any circumstances, the wife he had divorced, 
 after she had become the wife of another man (Deut. xxiv. 
 3, 4). And in Mai. ii. 16 it is expressly said that divorce is 
 contrary to the will of the Lord. So again, in Gen. ii. 24, it is 
 plainly declared to have been the purpose of the benign 
 Creator, that, by marrying, " a man shall leave his father and 
 his mother, and shall cleave unto his w^ife, and they twain 
 shall be one flesh." (Gen. ii. 24.) But there were no legal 
 enactments distinctly framed to carry out this purpose, by 
 enforcing the sanctity of the matrimonial tie. The same may 
 be said with regard to 'polygamy, God, in originally institu- 
 ting marriage, joined only one woman with one man (see Gen. 
 i. 27 ; ii. 21 — 25); but the Law, although acquainting us with 
 the divine institution of monogamy, and thereby representing 
 it as best, did yet not forbid polygamy and concuhinaije hy any 
 express legal enactments, hut rather tolerated them, as is seen 
 from a number of passages, e.g. Deut. xxi. 15; Ex. xxi. 
 8 — 10; 1 Sam. iii. 7 ; xii. 5. 
 
 Jesus Christ, on the contrary, maintained the perfect tvill 
 of God on this subject in language too plain to be mistaken. 
 We are informed in Matt. xix. 3 — 9, that, on one occasion, 
 when His enemies sought to entrap Him, He replied to 
 their question, ^^Is it lawful for a man to put away his 
 wife ?" in the following words — " Have ye not read, that He 
 which made them at the beginning, made them male and fe- 
 male, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and 
 mother, and shall cleave to his wafe, and they twain shall be 
 one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. 
 What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put 
 
 * The Hebrew text is not quite so strong as the English trans- 
 lation, inasmuch as, according to the correct construction of the 
 original, the whole of the first three verses form the antecedent, 
 and the consequent only begins with verse 4. 
 
I 
 
 26 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 asunder." And He regarded their erroneous view on the 
 subject as so little justified by the Law of Moses, tliat He ex- 
 posed its fallacy in these weighty words, " Moses, because of 
 the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your 
 wives ; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto 
 you, Whosoever shall put away liis wife, except it be for 
 fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; 
 and whoso niarrieth her which is put away doth commit adul- 
 tery," From these expressions it is plain that Jesus Christ 
 insists upon the original character of matrimony, according to 
 which it is a union for life between only one woman and one 
 man. Polygamy in His eyes has a criminal, an adulterous 
 character ; for if He says that a man commits adultery by 
 marrying again, after having put away his wife, it is plain 
 that He would also say a man commits adultery who marries 
 a second wife without putting away the first ; the adulterous 
 character of the second marriage resulting only from the cir- 
 cumstance, that, when it was contracted, a previously married 
 wife was still living. Hence, also, the apostles only approved 
 of a man's having one wife ; and, when speaking of the married 
 state of the Christians in their days, they speak of it uniformly 
 as being of a monogamistic character. So, e. g., St. Paul says 
 in 1 Cor. vii. 2, " To avoid fornication, let every man have 
 his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband ;" 
 and in vv. 12 and 13, "If any brother hath a wife that be- 
 lieveth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not 
 put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that 
 believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her 
 not leave him ;" and in Eph. v. 33, " Let every one of you 
 so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she 
 reverence her husband." This re-assertion and restitution of 
 the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage by CAm^/ff ;/z7?/ is 
 connected with its general tendency to raise the ivoman from 
 the deo-raded position she occupied in most heathen countries, 
 and even from that state of minority and dependence in which 
 the Law of Moses left her, to the position of a free child of 
 God, a responsible member of His kingdom in this world, and 
 an heir of glory in that to come. {See 1 Pet. iii. 7. ) 
 
PART II. . 
 
 RELATION BETWEEN MOHAMMEDANISM AND 
 
 CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 OR 
 
 CAN THE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL BE REGARDED AS SUPERSEDED CY 
 
 THAT OF THE KORAN 1 
 
 From the preceding comparison between Christianity and tlie 
 Mosaic dispensation it mnst appear plain beyond any doubt 
 that the former ranks higher than the latter, and is a more 
 advanced revelation of the one true religion God has given to 
 men, so that it must be a sin for any one to remain in the 
 Jewish religion after having received the opportunity of be- 
 coming a Christian. The next question for our consideration 
 is this — '^ Does Mohammedanism stand in the same relation 
 to Christianity in which Christianity stands to the preceding 
 economy, or, in other words, is it a still higher revelation of 
 the true religion ?" And if, after carefully and candidly ex- 
 amining the question, we must answer it in the affirmative, 
 we are bound to acknowdedge it to be the duty of every Chris- 
 tian to become a Mohammedan ; but if, on the contrary, we 
 have to answer it in the negative, every Mohammedan, who is 
 really anxious not to be deceived in a matter of such stupen- 
 dous importance, will learn from his owm conscience what step 
 it is his sacred duty to take. In order to avoid every appear- 
 ance of partiality, we wdll now examine Mohammedanism on 
 exactly the same points in regard to Christianity on which we 
 have already found Christianity superior to the Mosaic dispen- 
 sation, and we w^ill do so in the same order in which each 
 point came under treatment in the preceding comparison. 
 Our object will now be, in considering each of these points 
 separately, to see whether or not Mohammedanism is in that 
 particular point as superior to Christianity as we have found 
 Christianity to be superior to the earlier stage of revealed 
 religion. 
 
28 FOOD FOR REFLECTION", 
 
 ^ CHAPTER I. 
 
 DID ISLAM, AS A RELIGION, EVINCE A SUPERIORITY TO CHRISTIANITY 
 BY A HIGHER VITALITY AND GREATER POWER IN CONVERTING MEN, 
 AND IN SPREADING SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 
 
 Above (see p. 7) we recognised, in the vitality and world- 
 overcoming power with which Christianity made its appear- 
 ance, and effected its rapid spread amongst mankind, a proof 
 that by it God had given to the world a higher stage of the 
 true rehgion than that which previously existed ; and we like- 
 wise discerned, in the awful dissokition of the Jewish common- 
 wealth, soon after the rise of Christianity, a judgment of the 
 Almighty upon the Jewish nation for their culpable rejection 
 of Christ and His religion, as well as a token that the an- 
 cient dispensation had been superseded. Now if it is asserted, 
 that, since the rise of Mohammedanism, Christianity has simi- 
 larly been superseded as the true religion, ice must he entitled 
 to ask, in analogy with the above, ivhether this assertion ivill 
 be borne out by facts showing that Mo hajnme danism possesses 
 greater vitality and power for conquering the hearts of men 
 than the religion of Christ, and that, since Islam has made its 
 appearance in the world, God^s judgments so rest ujpon Chris- 
 tendom as to deaden in it all spiritual life, to dep7'ive the 
 Christian nations of their national blessings and prosperity,, 
 and to prevent a Christianizing influence amongst the non- 
 Christian 7iations of the world. 
 
 There is so much undeniable truth in Islam that it would be 
 strange indeed if it did not exercise some power over the 
 hearts of men. At the time Mohammed began to preach his 
 new religion, most of the Arabs were idolaters, and the Kaba 
 contained above 300 idols : it was, therefore, natural that the 
 new doctrine, " There is no God but God," should have made 
 a deep impression upon some minds who felt the hollowness 
 of idol-worship. But to exercise some power over the hearts 
 of men, and to exercise a power stronger than Christianity, are 
 
 <^ 
 
FOOD FOR EEFLECTION. 29 
 
 twa different tilings, and tlie latter is the question now under 
 consideration. It is true that a comparison hetiveen the effects 
 produced respectively hy Mohammedanism and Christianity 
 upon the hearts of men is rendered somewhat difficult by the 
 fact, that whilst Christianity existed for 300 years without 
 any political power, Mohammedanism, from tlie time of the 
 Hegira, was not a merely religious, but a politico-religious 
 system; so that it is almost impossible to say what residts are 
 attributable to the religious element, and what to the political 
 power of Islam. But such a comparison is perfectly feasible 
 for the short period from Mohammed's entering upon the 
 work of a prophet in Mecca to his assuming the additional 
 function of a temporal ruler in Medina. During this period, 
 generally estimated at thirteen years, the chief exponent of 
 Islam was the person of its founder. Christianity also has 
 such a period in which its chief exponent was its own founder: 
 this was the time of Christ's public ministry, lasting for about 
 three years. Now what was the respective result of the three 
 years' preaching of Christy and of the thirteen years' preaching 
 of Mohammed? In Luke vL 13 we read, that out of a 
 larger number of disciples Jesus chose twelve apostles; in 
 Luke x. 1, that, on another occasion, He coukl send seventy 
 disciples to preach the Gospel. In Matt. xxi. 46, we are told 
 that the reason why His enemies, the chief priests and Phari- 
 sees, abstained from laying hands on Him, was their "fear of 
 the multitude who took Him for a prophet ;" and in John vii. 
 40,41, that, on hearing His sayings, the people said, '' Of a 
 truth, this is the Prophet" while others said, " This is the 
 Christ." In Acts i. 15, an assembly of 120 disciples is men- 
 tioned, and in 1 Cor. xv. 6 we are informed, that on one 
 occasion during the forty days between Llis resurrection from 
 the dead and His ascension into heaven. He was seen by 
 above 500 brethren, or believing Christians, at once. From 
 Arabic historians, such as tlie Katib-el-Wakidi, Hishami, 
 Tabari, Ebn Saad, and others, we learn, on the other hand, 
 that the first converts of Mohammed were his own wife Cha- 
 dija, his adopted son Zaid, his nephew Ali, his intimate friend 
 Abu Bekr, several slaves who appear to have derived benefit 
 from Abu Bckr's riches; that up to Omar's adoption of Islam 
 
30 FOOD FOR REFLECTIOX. 
 
 in the house of Arkam, or after Moliammed liad been trying 
 to spread his religion for about six or seven years, his converts 
 amounted only to about fifty (viz. forty or forty-five men with 
 ten or eleven womon) : that, when they fled to Abyssinia from 
 the persecution in Mecca, their number, some time later, rose 
 to 101 (viz. eighty-three men and eighteen women), which 
 would seem to comprise all the converts of Mecca, up to the 
 Heo-ira, inasmuch as the Katib-el-Wakidi states the number of 
 the Meccan fugitives who assisted at the battle of Badr, nine- 
 teen months later, to have been eighty-three ; and that the 
 converts of Medina, at the time of the Hegira, consisted of 
 seventy-three men and two women. These data cannot leave it 
 doubtful in whose favour the result is, if we compare the success 
 of Mohammed and the success of Christ, both taken simply in 
 their character of founders and propagators of a religion, inde- 
 pendent of worldly means and power : the one, after thirteen 
 years of labour, could count about 180 converts, including 
 both men and women ; and the other, after three years of 
 labour, at least 500 converted men, besides the women. 
 
 After this short period the 'proportion in the respective spread 
 of Christianity and Islam changed; but this change was 
 effected by means proving, no doubt, that the Moslems were 
 daring and successful warriors, but by no means that their 
 religion, as such, has more power to subdue the hearts of men 
 than the relio;ion of Christ. 
 
 For three hundred years after the death of Christ the reli- 
 gion luhich He had founded was fiercely persecuted, first by the 
 unbelieving Jews, and afterwards by the formidable power of 
 the heathen empire of Rome. This vast empire comprised 
 almost the whole of the then known world ; its emperors' sway 
 extended from the British Isles to India, and from Scandi- 
 navia to the Sahara of Africa. In this mighty empire the 
 Christian religion was prohibited, antl consequently its pro- 
 gress opposed by the most formidable worldly power then in 
 existence. Church historians count no less than ten sangui- 
 nary persecutions, instituted by the Roman Government 
 against all who professed their faith in Clu'ist ; yet in spite of 
 all this opposition, and all these persecutions, during which 
 thousands of Christians, old and young, men and women, died 
 
i 
 
 FOOD Foil REFLECTION. 31 
 
 a martyr's death, Christianity spread far and ivide ; and it 
 often happened that the patience, the fervent prayers, the 
 heroic courage and triumphal joys of these martyrs, in the face 
 of death, were the means of converting e*^en their heathen 
 executioners, so that it became a common saying among the 
 Cliristians, that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the 
 church. The Christians^ faith and patience proved stronger titan 
 all the ivorldly power of the Roman empire. After three cen- 
 turies of oppression and persecution, Christianity, without once 
 stooping to take up the sword of rebellion, or opposing force by 
 force, had spread so irresistibly by its own inherent power, 
 that thousands of Christians were found even in the legions of 
 the Roman army, or in the palaces of governors; and their 
 number everywhere had so multiplied, that when the first 
 emperor, Constantine, the builder of Stambul, became a Chris- 
 tian, he found that the professors of the hitherto-persecuted 
 faith were a more powerful support than the heathen. There 
 can be no doubt, that, at the end of those persecutions, or the 
 beoinnino: of Constantine's rei^n, the Christians in the Roman 
 empire amounted to several* millions, and, according to the 
 most trustworthy ancient records, they were already found scat- 
 tered over the following countries : — India, Persia, Parthia, 
 Bactria, Media, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, 
 Africa, Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, 
 and England. 
 
 It is true, that after the flight of Mohammed to 3Iedina his 
 religion also began to spread rapidly over many countries^ so 
 that the Moslems could soon be numbered by thousands and 
 millions. But no one acquainted with the history of those 
 days could say that this rapid spread of Mohammedanism was 
 effected solely by its spiritual power over the hearts of men : 
 on the contrary, it is notorious that no tribe or nation has ever 
 embraced Islam, without having either been, first conquered, 
 which was generally the case, or been otherwise affected by its 
 political power. In what degree Mohammed, from the begin- 
 ning of his residence in Medina, combined with the prophetic 
 
 * All historian so little favourable to Christianity as Gibbon 
 considers it possible tliat they may have amounted to six millions. 
 
 ^ 
 
32 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 office tlie rank of an Arab Emir, or military chief, is evident 
 from the fact, that during; the eiohteen months interveninii 
 between the Ilegira and tlie famous battle of Badr, he had 
 organized with his followers no less than seven marauding 
 expeditions, intended to plunder mercantile caravans on their 
 way to or from Mecca, and that three of these expeditions he 
 had headed in person. If we bear in mind how, from the 
 most ancient times, the numerous independent tribes of Arabia 
 delighted in war and plunder, we can easily conceive, that 
 when the said marauding expeditions, and especially the spoils 
 and ransom after the battle of Badr, had once convinced th6m 
 that the new prophet intended not only to lead them to a 
 paradise beyond the grave, but was also the man to conduct 
 them to the earthly paradise of victory and plunder, this latter 
 prospect of itself had sufficient charm to induce many to join 
 the new religion. At the death of Mohammed, only nine 
 years after the Hegira, all Arabia had succumbed to the 
 sword of the Moslems, and submitted, though at first very 
 reluctantly, to their religion. The warlike tribes who had 
 before been living in perpetual feuds between themselves, and 
 accustomed to pillage and plunder, were then, for the first 
 time, united under one head or leader, to whom-, they had to 
 yield both religious and military obedience.. What wonder, 
 then, that, invited at once by the poverty of their home, and 
 the injunctions of a religion in keeping with the strong maraud- 
 ing instincts that had always characterized their race, while 
 the neighbouring empires of Rome and Persia, w^eakened by a 
 long series of destructive wars against each other, lay before 
 them a tempting bait in their untold wealth and boundless 
 luxury — what wonder, after all this, that we find the Arab 
 armies, under the first energetic Chalifs, pour forth from their 
 native deserts, like an irresistible mountain torrent, and con- 
 quer, in rapid succession, all the surrounding countries! As 
 far as the conquests of these armies extended, so far Islamism 
 was made the religion of the State; and although the con- 
 quered people were, in most cases, not actually forced to em- 
 brace the religion of the conquerors, yet they were put under 
 so many disabilities, and had frequently to suffer such cruel 
 op[)ressions, while the means of keeping up their faith and 
 
 <-^^ 
 
i 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 33 
 
 learning were greatly curtailed {e. g. as early as the reign of 
 the Chalif Omar 4000 Christian churches are reported to have 
 been destroyed), that it is not very susprising if thousands of 
 worldly-minded, ignorant, and down-trodden people could be 
 found ready, during the first period of confusion and fright^ 
 and afterwards, from time to time, to purchase the privileges 
 and power of the ruling class, by parting with the religion of 
 their fathers. So it came to pass that the armies of Moslem 
 warriors proved successful Missionaries, or propagators of 
 their religion, and that in course of time, after many countries 
 had been subjected to Mohammedan rulers and laws, their 
 converts amounted to millions and tens of millions. But these 
 many and great victories of the Moslem armies, and the con- 
 sequent wide spread of Islam, for which they had thus to pave 
 the way, cannot prove the divine character of the religion of the 
 Koran, They are by no means miraculous. General history 
 makes us acquainted with similar and even greater military 
 exploits ; e, g. Alexander the Great, who was an idolater, and 
 started from a country much smaller than Arabia, subjugated 
 in nine years almost as large a territory as the Chalifs in ninety, 
 and wherever he went he spread the Greek language and 
 manners with remarkable success. Besides, let it be observed, 
 that although the Moslems exercised for successive centuries a 
 vast amount of power to subserve the interests and spread of 
 their religion, yet they did not so far succeed with the Chris- 
 tians under their dominion as the Christians had succeeded 
 with the heathen; for whilst in Europe not a single commu- 
 nity remains adhering to its original heathenism, the Chris- 
 tians still living in Mohammedan countries, such as Rumelia, 
 Anatolia, Syria, Persia, and Egypt, amount to many millions. 
 The entire number of Mohammedans throughout the world 
 can now only be estimated at about 100 to 150 millions, whilst 
 the professed Christians in the world exceed 300 millions. It 
 is therefore an established fact, and not a mere opinion on 
 which people may differ, that ivhilst the number of Christians 
 so rapidly increased as now vastly to surpass that of the Jews, 
 the number of 3Ioslems , far from in like degree exceeding that 
 of the Christians, barely amounts to one-half. 
 
 It is likewise a fact of history, that scarcely had the Jews 
 
 D 
 
34 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 rejected Christianity, than those fearful judgments broke in 
 upon their nation, which deprived them of tlieir fatlierland, 
 and scatteredthem, as poor despised exiles, all over the world. 
 But if we inquire of history whether the rejection of Islam by 
 the Christians was visited with still greater, or only with 
 similar judgments, the answer is, that though, in countries 
 conquered by Mohammedan armies, and where many worldly- 
 minded Christians gave up their religion for that of the con- 
 querors, those who remained faithful to the Gospel had to 
 suffer the loss of many earthly goods ; yet those Christian 
 lands which entirely rejected the religion of the Koran, and 
 some of which even defeated the invading Moslem armies, were 
 not only unvisited for this with national judgments , hut continued 
 to 'prosper even more than before. The Jews, since their rejec- 
 tion of Christ, have never been able to form a commonwealth 
 of their own ; but the Christian nations who rejected the creed 
 of Mohammed could not only maintain their independence, in 
 spite of vast Moslem armies sent forth for tlieir subjugation, 
 but their population and power has so signally increased, by 
 the blessing of God, that they now possess the greater part of 
 the habitable world, and exercise a more or less powerful 
 influence over every region of the earth. It can now be said, 
 ivithout exaggeration, that the Christians stand highest in the 
 scale of nations, and that the providence of God has already 
 invested them with power over the whole earth. It is a fact 
 worth pondering, that Christianity began w^ith humble indivi- 
 duals, who had no power, apart from the energy of their con- 
 victions ; that for 300 years its doctrines w^ere propagated 
 amidst cruel persecutions, by the faith, the prayer, the teaching, 
 the sufferings, and the death of an army of martyrs; and that, 
 nevertheless, it now sits upon the most powerful thrones of 
 the world ; whilst Mohammedanism, from the beginning aimed 
 at secular conquests, was spread for a time by vast armies of 
 warriors, and has now lost the greater part of the power it 
 once possessed. 
 
 A compariso7i of the internal state and condition of the 
 Mohammedan and Christian lands is no less suggestive of grave 
 truths. It cannot be doubted that the true religion, bj^ the 
 diffusion of purity, honesty, equity, and the higher happiness 
 
) 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 35 
 
 of communion with God by a living faith and spiritual wor- 
 sln'p, must greatly help to elevate a people, and to promote 
 its general prosperity. We have now to apply this standard 
 to the two religions in question ; for if Christianity has ceased 
 to be the true faith since the rise of Islam, as most Mos- 
 lems assert, we must naturally expect to find Mohammedan 
 countries distinguished by the highest degree of prosperity, 
 and the Christian world almost entirely without it. But what 
 are the actual facts in this respect ? Arabia is the birth-place 
 of Islam, where it has had undisturbed sway since the days of 
 its founder. The rich spoil of many countries was brought 
 to that land by the victorious armies of the first Chalifs. The 
 Beduin sons of Arabia were for a time the rulers of some of 
 the richest nations in the world. But these riches and this 
 power were lost again, almost as quickly as they had been 
 acquired ; and the Arabs, instead of becoming a civilized, pro- 
 sperous people, under the influence of Islam, are still, after en- 
 joying for twelve centuries all the benefits of their religion, 
 the same semi-barbarous, ignorant, and marauding Beduin 
 tribes they were before Mohammed was born ; not so civilized 
 as some even of the heathen nations. The other countries in 
 which the Mohammedan rule and religion were established 
 shortly after the prophet's death, and where they have pre- 
 vailed ever since, are, Syria, Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and 
 North Africa, At the time when these countries were subju- 
 gated by the Moslem armies they abounded with towns and 
 villao:es, the land was well cultivated, and the population, 
 while generally prosperous, belonged to the most civilized 
 nations^of the day. But under the sivmj of Islam this degree 
 of 'prosperity and civilization, so far from increasing , has dimi- 
 nished so lamentahhj, that now those lands are littlehetter than 
 vast deserts, where, in some parts, the traveller can walk for 
 days together without coming to a town, or even a village, and 
 the soil is so little cultivated, that extensive districts, once 
 densely inhabited, are now abandoned to the herds of roaming 
 Beduins or Turkomans, and the popidation is not only greatly 
 reduced in number, but impoverished in an equal degree, and 
 exists in a condition but little above actual barbarism. How 
 different the effects produced bv Christianity, where it has been 
 
 d2 
 
3G FOOD FOB REFLECTION'. 
 
 cmbracccl ! If we except Italy and Greece, in which a hea- 
 then civilization prevailed, the whole of Europe, when Chris- 
 tianity was first offered to it, was in a barbarous or (to say the 
 least) semi-barbarous condition. In England, people still 
 clothed themselves in the skins of animals ; and the Germans 
 were so savage that women went forth with their husbands to 
 battle, and sometimes might be seen driving them back into the 
 fight with reproaches and even whips, if they began to flee. But 
 the Gospel was stronger than these indomitable sons and daugh- 
 ters of nature : the love of God in Christ gradually softened and 
 subdued them. All the nations of Europe, one after another, 
 cast away their idols, and worshipped the only true God, re- 
 vealed to them in His Son Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind; 
 and this new faith proved to them a fountain of blessings, both 
 temporal and spiritual, so that, in their subsequent experience, 
 the truth of the divine word was amply fulfilled, that " Godli- 
 ness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life 
 that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Tim. iv. 8.) 
 Under the beneficial and ennohling influence of Christianity not 
 only has the population of Europe so immensely increased as ?ioiv 
 to be estimated at three to six times its former number, but the 
 different European nations are all of them vastly more civil- 
 ized^ better educated, and wealthier than before; and it is so 
 well known as to be almost superfluous to add, that for many 
 generations past Christian Europe has unquestionably been at the 
 head of the nations of the earth, in point of civili::ation, learning, 
 power, and influence. History therefore brings before our eyes 
 the undeniable fact that Islam failed not only to elevate the 
 nations upon ivhom it was imposed' beyond the level of the Chris- 
 tianity of those early days, but that it had not intidnsic strength 
 enough to prevent them from sinking below the point at which 
 it first met them ; while, on the contrary. Christian lands that 
 refused to submit to its yoke, so far from being punished by 
 God for this by the withdrawal of their national blessings, 
 have gone on improving and prospering till they have left tlie 
 Moslem nations far behind them in civilization, wealth, and 
 power. This is not a matter of opinion, but of fact, which no 
 well-informed Moslem can gainsay; for Turkey is unques- 
 tionably tlie most civilized and advanced of all Mohammedan 
 
} 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 37 
 
 cotintrles, and yet is it not well known to every one, that if 
 the Sultan wishes, e.g., to build a new palace, he must choose 
 his architect from among the Christians ; if he will enjoy the 
 fine arts, his taste has mainly to be gratifiecP by Christian pro- 
 ductions ; if he would have a raih^oad in his land, it must be 
 made by the hands of foreigners ; if he wishes for steamers or 
 strong ships of war, he must either purchase them in a Chris- 
 tian land or build them with the help of Christian workmen ; if 
 he wants to advance the agriculture or industry of his coun- 
 try, he must obtain the main agents, the implements, and all 
 superior machinery from Christian lands ; if he desires to train 
 vouno* men for the medical profession, or for civil positions of 
 importance, or even for the command of his army and navy, he 
 must appoint foreigners as professors, or such natives as have 
 already benefited by foreign learning. Is it not a fact which 
 cannot be denied, that Turkish soldiers fight with weapons 
 bought in Christian countries ; that Turkish clerks and^ Mo- 
 hammedan Ulamahs write on paper prepared by Christian 
 hands; and that, from the Serai to the meanest cottage, 
 there is not a family but clothes itself in the produce of Chris- 
 tian manufacture. 
 
 If the assertion were correct, that, since the appearance of 
 Islam, Christianity has ceased to be the true religion, and that 
 now it is God's will that all men, Christians and Jews, as well 
 as pagans, should embrace the doctrines of the Koran, we 
 should naturally expect to find the superseded religion of 
 Christ in a state of decay, without spiritual life or energy, and 
 destitute of all tokens of divine blessing, and the religion of 
 Mohammed, if not still in the bloom of youth, at least in the 
 health and vigour of manhood, and still spreading, by God's 
 blessing, either in the track of victorious armies, as at the first, 
 or by the gentler but surer method of presenting to the world 
 examples of the happiness, prosperity, and greatness at which 
 nations can arrive under its influence. But how much the 
 reverse of all this the actual state of things ! It is true, the 
 Mohammedan nations in the interior of Africa, viz. the 
 Bornuese, the Mandengas, and the Phulas or Phelatas, invited 
 by the weak and defenceless condition of the surrounding 
 negro tribes, still occasionally make conquests, and after sub- 
 
38 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 duing a tribe of pagans, by almost extirpating its male popu- 
 lation, and committing the most horrible atrocities, impose 
 upon those tliat remain the creed of Islam ; but, keeping in 
 view the whole ot the Mohammedan world, this fitful and far 
 off activity reminds one only of those green branches some- 
 times seen on trees already and for long decayed at the core 
 from age. Those countries which form the proper centre and 
 heart of Mohammedanism, and are still the seat of its political 
 power, viz. Rumelia, Anatolia, Syria, Persia, and the North 
 of Africa, have long ago ceased to send forth armies for the 
 purpose of subduing fresh nations to the faith. Not merely 
 has the tide of Mohammedan conquest ceased to advance j it has 
 for long been steadily receding^ as the page of history amply 
 shoivs, leaving some of the noblest countries, once owning the 
 Moslem sway, as, e.g., Spain, Algiers, Greece, the Crimea, 
 India, S^^c, under the dominiori of Christian Governments. 
 Moreover, it is well known, and the confession is often heard 
 from the mouths of Mohammedans themselves, that hundreds 
 and thousands who bear the name, especially amongst the great , 
 the educated, and the rich, have intellectually lost all faith in 
 Islam, and either lean towards Christianity, or have become 
 the pitiable prey of utter atheism. But if we turn to those 
 who still honestly believe in the Koran — and their number is 
 not small — ivhot proofs do they afford, by their lives and acts, 
 that their religion is more divine, or produces more holiness, 
 righteousness, and charity among 7nen, than any other ? Are 
 the Moslems less haughty and irascible, less egotistical and 
 self-indulgent, less given to bribery and oppression, or more 
 honest, true, just, merciful, and pure in heart and life, more 
 earnest and active in seeking to enlighten the ignorant, to 
 bring the erring into the way of truth, defend the weak, de- 
 liver the oppressed, and lead benighted idol-worshippers to the 
 knowledge of the only true God, than the Christians ? No 
 Moslem who knows the Christian world as well as the Moham- 
 medan will feel disposed to answer these questions in the affir- 
 mative. On the contrary, every one acquainted with the 
 respective countries must readily allow that the reverse is the 
 case. What can the Moslems show at all coming up to the 
 fruits of the Christian religion, as seen in so many thousands 
 
) 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 39 
 
 of hospitals for all kinds of diseases^ so niany excellent schools 
 for the young of both sexes and every grade of life, not even 
 excepting the blind, the deaf and dumb ; while for the poor 
 who cannot work, shelter, food, and clothing are legally pro- 
 vided, both in towns and villages ; not to speak of vast numbers 
 of voluntary Societies for mutual aid and support among the 
 w^orking classes, and the equally numerous associations gathered 
 from the higher for visiting the poor, the sick, and dying with 
 words of comfort, or the ungodly and careless with needful 
 advice or warmng? Where are the fruits of Mohammedanism 
 corresponding to those millions of tracts and Bibles annually 
 circulated throughout the w^orld at a mere nominal price ; and, 
 above all, those various great Societies constituted and carried 
 on by no other law than the love of God and man, wdiich 
 annually collect, by spontaneous offerings, millions of money, 
 for the purpose of sending teachers to every part of the w^orld 
 to preach the Gospel of salvation through Christ to idolaters, 
 Jews, and Moslems ? If Islam is now the only true religion, 
 and the only one to enjoy the approval and blessing of God, 
 how is it that it does not spread among men ? how is it that 
 the true Moslems have not love and zeal enough to send 
 millions of Korans, w^ith thousands of Imams, Khojahs, and 
 Ulamas, to all Christian and pagan countries, to make known 
 their religion ? If Christianity is no longer true, and no longer 
 enjoys God's blessing, why is it not thereby rendered unfruit- 
 ful? why does it still spread in every part of the world, 
 amongst idolaters, Jew^s, and Moslems, so that at this moment 
 the new converts can be counted by hundreds of thousands ? 
 Meanwhile, not a single teacher has been sent from any 
 Mohammedan country to convert the Americans, English, 
 French, Prussians, or other Christians, to Islam, although 
 Christian Missionaries have gone to various parts of the 
 Mohammedan world, and even to Stambul, the capital of the 
 Sultans, in order to assist such Moslems as desire it to 
 acquaint themselves w^ith the Christian religion. Surely, 
 contrasts like these could not exist, if it were God's purpose 
 that Christianity should be replaced by Islam. The facts 
 already mentioned, and a numher more that might he named, 
 rather seem to indicate, icith unmistak cable clearness, that 
 
f 
 
 40 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 iJiovgh ChristianHi) is COO jjears older than Islam, the former 
 is still in the vigorous health and matured power of manhood, 
 and the latter, for some time past, stricken with tJie languor 
 and infirmities of old age. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ARE MOHAMMED AND ISLAM FORETOLD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, AS 
 CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY HAVE BEEN IN THE OLD ? 
 
 We have found above (see p. 10) that it was a token of the 
 truth and divine origin of the Christian religion that the 
 temporary nature of the Mosaic dispensation was proclaimed 
 in the Old Testament itself, and the coming of a higher and 
 more enduring religion foretold. Now every one must allow 
 that it would likewise form a strong; argument in favour of 
 Mohammedanism, if passages could be found in the New 
 Testament which either showed that Christianity was also a 
 partial and temporary system, or directed our hopes to another 
 Prophet and Saviour to come. This is so evident, even to 
 Mohammedans, that they have actually attempted to strengthen 
 their position by maintaining that the coming of Mohammed 
 was foretold in the Gospel. But, upon examination, we find 
 that this assertion is based upon wholly untenable ground. 
 The assertion occurs already in the Koran, viz, in the follow- 
 ing general manner in the Surah entitled El Araf, or Purga- 
 tory (vii. 155, 156) — " I write it down for those who shall 
 follow the apostle, the unlettered prophet, whom they find 
 described with them in the Law and Gospel;" and in the 
 more explicit manner in the Surah " Battle array " (Ixi. 6) — 
 " Jesus, the son of Mary, said, O children of Israel, I am 
 God's apostle to you to confirm the Law which was given before 
 me, and to announce an apostle that shall come after me, 
 whose name shall be Ahmed." In reference to the first pas- 
 sage, which finds a description of Mohammed already in the 
 Old Testament, it suffices to say that there is indeed a Pro- 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 41 
 
 pliet or Servant of God foretold, but that he is uniformly re- 
 presented as springing from the people of Israel, and that no 
 one who has eyes to read what is written can find in the 
 whole Old Testament a single passage speaking of a Prophet 
 who is to arise from among the Arabs. According to the 
 second passage, Christ has not only announced the coming of 
 another apostle after him, but has even foretold his name. 
 Now if we read the New Testament through from begin- 
 ning to end, we find not a single verse capable of bear- 
 ing such a construction, and we should be left to sup- 
 pose that the Koran must refer to a book which is not 
 the Gospel, but which may have erroneously or perfidiously 
 professed to be so, if the Mohammedan doctors did not tell 
 us that it refers to those w^ords in wdiich Christ promised 
 to His disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit, 
 or Comforter, from His Father in heaven, viz. John 
 xiv. 16. 26; xv. 26; xvi. 7. But the Greek term rendered 
 " Comforter " is derived from a verb signifying " to call upon 
 some one, to induce him to come and bring help, or to cause 
 him to leave off" anxiety and be of good cheer ;" and, con- 
 sequently, has nothing to do with the Arabic root " hameda " 
 or "hammada,"to praise; so that, if in the days of Moham- 
 med there should have been an Arabic manuscript of the 
 Gospel in which the term " Paraclete " was rendered by 
 *' Ahmad " (a supposition which has never been proved), 
 this would have been a wrong translation, arising either 
 from w^ant of knowledge or good faith. Independently, how- 
 ever, of this, another circumstance at once decides that these 
 promises can never have referred to Mohammed ; for in Acts 
 i. 4, 5, we read that the Holy Ghost, or Paraclete, was to 
 come to the apostles *^not many days hence," and that till 
 then they w^ere " not to depart from Jerusalem." But every 
 one knows that the apostles received the Holy Ghost ten 
 days after Christ's ascension {see Acts ii.), and that they had 
 all been long dead when Mohammed arose, 600 years later. 
 
 Not only does the Gospel contain no prophecy of the coming 
 
 of an Ahmad f or any one else, to supersede Chi-ist, but it claims 
 
 for itself so absolute a character as the only true light, and the 
 
 only right luay to God, that there is no room' left for any rival 
 
42 FOOD ron reflection. 
 
 STjstem tojilly and noposslbUity of a higher religion yet to come. 
 Accordingly, we read in Matt, xi., that when John the Bap- 
 tist, on a certain occasion, sent a deputation to Cln-ist to 
 ask Him, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look 
 for another?" He, instead of encouraging any such hopes 
 of a future Prophet, plainly told them, "Go, and show 
 John ao-ain those thino^s which ye do liear and see: the 
 Wind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are 
 cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the 
 poor have the Gospel preached unto them ; and blessed is he, 
 whosoever shall not be offended in me." And soon after He 
 added, " All things are delivered unto me of my Father ; 
 and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth 
 any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the 
 Son will reveal Him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." On another 
 occasion He said, " God so loved the world that He gave His 
 only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His 
 Son into the world to condemn the world ; but that the world, 
 throuo-h Him, mip;ht be saved. He that believeth on Him is 
 not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned 
 already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only- 
 beo'otten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that 
 licrht is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds were evil." (John iii. 16 — 19.) 
 And, a^ain, " I am the lio-ht of the world : he that followeth 
 me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." 
 (John viii. 12.) And again, "lam the living bread v>^hich 
 came down from heaven : if any man eat of that bread, he 
 shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, 
 which I will give for the life of the world. Whoso eateth my 
 flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
 raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, 
 and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the 
 living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father : so he 
 that eateth me, even he shall live by me." (John vi. 51. 
 54 — 57.) So likewise St. Paul writes, in 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6, 
 
FOOD FOR HEFLECTIOX. 43 
 
 " There is one God and one mediator between God and man, 
 tlie man Christ Jesus ; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to 
 be testified in due time." And agahi, in 2 Cor. v. 17 — 19^ 
 " If any man be in Christ, he is a new crexiture : old things 
 are passed away : behold, all things are become new. And 
 all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto Himself by 
 Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconcilia- 
 tion ; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world 
 unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and 
 hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." And St. 
 Peter testified of Him to the Jew^s, saying, " This is the stone 
 wdilch was set at nought of you builders, which is become the 
 head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: 
 for there is none other name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby we must be saved." (Acts iv. 11, 12.) By the side 
 of such declarations as these, it is indeed natural to find pro- 
 phecies like that in Matt. xxiv. 11, *'Many false prophets 
 shall rise, and shall deceive many ;" but it would be impossible 
 to imagine any messenger who could do, or be, more for us 
 than is here predicted of Christ. For the Son Himself having 
 come and made known the Father, it is self-evident that hicrher 
 revelation by a mere servant is for ever superseded. It is 
 because Jesus Christ is revealed in the Gospel as the spiritual 
 sun, or the light of the world, and as the only Savour of man- 
 kind, that no other new revelation can be expected after Him, 
 and that tlie ivhole Christian dispensation, or the period from 
 Chrisfs life upon earth to His coming again to judgment, is 
 called " the last iime^'' or " the last days^"* and " the end of the 
 worldy So we read in 1 Cor. x. 11, "These things are 
 written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the world 
 is come;" and in 1 John ii. 18, " Little children, it is the last 
 time : and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even 
 now are there many antichrists;" and in Heb. i. 1, 2, "God 
 who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times 
 past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days 
 spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of 
 all things, by whom also He made the world ;" and St. Peter 
 writes to the believers, " Ye were redeemed with the blood of 
 Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who 
 
44 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 verily was foreordained before the foundation of tlie world, 
 but was manifest in these last days for you." (1 Pet. i. 19,20.) 
 It is therefore plain beyond contradiction, that whatever may 
 bo the foundatioiis of Islam, it does not rest either on any 
 particular prophecy in the Gospel respecting Mohammed and 
 his teaching, or on any deficiency in the Christian religion 
 which it was required to supply. 
 
 If, in order to escape this conclusion, any Mohammedans, 
 unacquainted with the history of the New Testament text, 
 should assert that our version of the Gospel is not the original 
 one, but has been corrupted by the Christians after Moham- 
 med's appearance, in order thus to suppress one of the most 
 important testimonies to his divine commission, it only re- 
 mains to say, in reply, that a number of learned Moham- 
 medans, e.g. Imam Mohammed Ismail Bokhari, Shah Wali 
 Allah, Imam Fakhr-ud-Din Razi, and others, down to the 
 learned Siyud Ahmud, our own Indian contemporary, have 
 already expressed their conviction that the Gospel now in 
 circulation is still the same as that used before the days of 
 Mohammed ; that from the ancient manuscripts still pre- 
 served in the great libraries of Christian lands, this is so 
 evident as to require no further proof; and that, consequently, 
 it is unfair of Mohammedans still to bring forivard this old 
 assertion that the sacred writings have been corruptedy unless 
 they establish the charge by j)ositive proofs, to do ivhich, if 
 they can, we would here 'publicly challenge them. For so long 
 as they fail to prove this charge, it is only just to pass it over 
 as baseless and unworthy of notice. 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 45 
 
 CHAPTEPt III. - 
 
 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM, INSTEAD OF ORIGINATING IN CHRISTENDOM, AS 
 CHRISTIANITY HAD CAST ITS FIRST ROOTS AMONG THE ISRAELITES, 
 SPRANG FROM THE MIDST OF IDOLATERS IN ARABIA. 
 
 There can be no doubt that " the whole earth is the Lord's " 
 (Psahn xxiv. I), and that "He can do whatsoever He pleaseth " 
 (Psalm cxv. 3) ; but it is no less incontestable, that for all He 
 does He has the best and w^isest of reasons. We have already 
 recognised the divine wisdom of first sending the Law of 
 Moses to Israel, in preparation for the perfect and more 
 spiritual religion of Christ {see p. 12) ; and it must appear per- 
 fectly consistent with the supreme w^isdom of God to have in- 
 troduced the Saviour when and where He was expected, and to 
 have laid the first foundation of the church of the future 
 where the ground had been carefully prepared for it. So, 
 likewise, if God had willed to supersede Christianity, we 
 should have been led, both by analogy and the nature of the 
 case, to expect that this higher development should unfold 
 itself in the bosom of Christendom, where alone it could find 
 a congenial soil ready for its reception. Yet there is no more 
 patent fact in history than that the founder of Islam ivas neither 
 horn nor brought up in a Christian land, not even amidst a 
 Jewish community f hut amongst the Arabs who loere ignorant ido^ 
 laters, and wdio had collected no fewer than 360 idols, as Arab 
 tradition says, in their national sanctuary, the Kaaba. It is 
 also perfectly well known to those acquainted with the Arabic 
 history of those days, that when Mohannned began to claim 
 the authority of a prophet, and to preach his new religion, the 
 people of Mecca were so little prepared for it that they ridi- 
 culed him as a fool, and were so violently opposed to his pre- 
 tensions that the new religion would have been destroyed in 
 the bud, but for the protection and influence of Abu Talib and 
 his powerful family, in the first instance ; wliile afterwards it 
 knew how to take advantage of the subsisting feuds and jea- 
 lousies between the rival cities of Medina and Mecca, and the 
 
46 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 secular weapons thus placed at its disposal. This free use of 
 carnal means in support of the new religion is itself a plain 
 proof either that Islam is not so spiritual a religion as Chris- 
 tianity ; or, if it is*, that Arabia was by no means prepared for 
 its recejHion ivhen it first appeared: for were it otherwise, 
 those carnal weapons would have been unnecessary, and it 
 could have spread as quietly and peaceably as Christianity 
 had done before. How, then, can it appear compatible with 
 God's infinite wisdom and immutability, to send a higher reli- 
 gion than Christianity, and yet depart from all precedent, by 
 raising up the last and greatest of all prophets from amongst 
 the idolatrous Arabs, whilst for more than 2000 years before, 
 viz. since the days of Abraham, He had chosen all his prophets, 
 without exception, from amongst the Israelites, so that even 
 Christ was of the seed of Abraham after the flesh ? (Compare 
 Surah xlv. 15. and xxix. 27.) Is not this single circumstance, 
 i\-i2ii\^ Mohammed he a prophet^ he is the sole prophet originating 
 amidst polytheism^ sufficient to raise doubts in every thinking 
 mind, as to the divine character of his mission ? Can we at all 
 wonder, if the more intelligent Mohammedans reason thus — 
 ^* If Mohammed had to bring a higher revelation than Christ, 
 why, then, did he not appear in some Christian land, where 
 the way would have been somewhat prepared for him, rather 
 than in idolatrous Arabia, where he could only convert the 
 people to his doctrines by first subjugating them politically ? 
 or if it had been possible to bring the highest revelation to 
 idolaters at once, without first preparing them by the Law 
 and the Gospel, why then did the all-merciful God not send 
 Islam 600 years sooner, instead of Christianity, or 2000 
 years earlier still, instead of the Law? why keep it back 
 from mankind for so long a time, if it might just as well 
 have been announced so much earlier?" If such questions 
 arise in the mind of thinkino; Mohammedans, it would seem 
 that they could hardly help arriving at conclusions hostile to 
 the divine mission of the founder of the religion in which they 
 have been brought up. 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAN THE CLAIMS OF MOHAMMED, AS THE FOUNDER OF A NEW RELIGION, 
 BE ESTABLISHED BY THE PROOF OF MIRACLES ? 
 
 Turning now to the subject of miracles, we still find Moliam- 
 med's claim to a divine mission resting, to say the least, upon 
 a most doubtful foundation. It has already been mentioned 
 (see p. 14.) that Moses and Jesus performed miracles, in order 
 to give the people a rational conviction that they were sent 
 from God ; for it is evident that without such a test, any 
 unprincipled man might pretend that he was a special mes- 
 senger from heaven, and men would have no means whereby 
 to distinguish when God spoke by a Prophet, and when He 
 did not. Now, if we apply this test to Mohammed, it will 
 be impossible to concede that his claim to a prophetic mis- 
 sion is as clearly established as that of Jesus or Moses. It 
 is indeed true, that if ive ivere to believe the traditions of 
 the Moslems, a vast number of miracles took place to esta- 
 blish the apostleshij) of Mohammed. But even granting the 
 validity of these, we could not be altogether satisfied; for 
 we should still be struck with remarkable discrepancies in 
 the Mohammedan miracles, as contrasted with those of Jesus 
 Christ and the Prophets, rendering it difficult to believe 
 the wonders in both cases could have equally proceeded 
 from God. If we are told, e.g., that at Mohammed's request 
 a tree came to him, ploughing up the ground before it, and 
 said in a loud voice, '' I bear testimony that there is but 
 one God, and that thou art His Prophet ;" that, on other 
 occasions, animals, mountains, stones, and a bunch of dates, 
 similarly testified of him ; or that any dress, short or long, 
 wdiicli he piit on, would always exactly fit, and the like ; 
 we have a class of miracles so puerile and fantastic, and 
 differing so ividely from "the signs and wonders'''' of the pre- 
 ceding Prophets, that we cannot but feel a certain degree of 
 suspcion. How favourably the conduct of Jesus Christ con- 
 
48 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 trast3 with such a display of tlie supernatural, who did all Ills 
 wonders with the direct and beneficent object of delivering 
 men from pain, sorrow, and sin ; and who, according to Matt, 
 iv. 1 — 11, refused to convert stones into bread to satisfy His 
 own want ; and when solicited to make a display of His super- 
 natural power before the people, by alighting from a pinnacle 
 of the temple, replied to the tempter, *' It is written. Thou 
 shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 
 
 But besides this^ there are other grave doubts attaching to 
 the miracles ascribed to Mohammed; and it is, in truth, highlg 
 l^robable that he never performed a single one. The fact which 
 must lead any candid inquirer with almost irresistible force to 
 such a conclusion is this, that Mohammed himself never ap- 
 pealed to a power of ivorking miracles in proof of his prophetic 
 mission; but, on the contrary, admits in the Koran that lie 
 possessed no such power, in language sufficiently plain. Now 
 from all we know of Mohammed, it is indubitably clear that 
 he was entirely free from any rationalistic tendency to explai?i 
 away miraculous things by natural causes ; but that, on the con- 
 trary, he was by no means disinclined to regard in the light of a 
 miracle that which was quite natural. So, e. g., he does not 
 hesitate repeatedly to speak of the language of the Koran as 
 something miraculous, and altogether beyond the reach of 
 mere men [see Surah x. 38, 39), and the victory of Badr he 
 represents as the result of a divine interposition. (Surah x. 
 11.) It is certain, therefore, that if Mohammed had ever 
 done any miracles, he would have referred to them in proof of 
 his apostleship ; and this all the more, as for a long time the 
 most thoughtful and influential among the Arabs doubted his 
 prophetic mission, and repeatedly challenged him to prove it 
 by miracles. The Koran itself alludes to these challenges in 
 Surah xvii. 92, " They {i. e. the unbelievers) say. By no 
 means will we believe on thee till thou cause a fountain to 
 gush forth for us from the earth, or till thou have a garden 
 of palm-trees and grapes, and thou cause gushing rivers to 
 burst forth in its midst; or thou make the heaven to fall on 
 us, as thou hast given out, in pieces ; or thou bring God and 
 the angels to vouch for thee, &c." (Compare also Surah xiii. 
 30.) Now, how does Mohammed meet these demands ? Does 
 
I 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTIOX, 49 
 
 he say, '^ I will do the miracles you require ?" or can he 
 replj^ " It is unnecessary to perform the miracles you de- 
 mand, for 1 have already done so many that the super-humaii 
 power at my command can no longer be Reasonably ques- 
 tioned ?" By no means : his reply cannot be regarded by the 
 impartial otherwise than as an admission that he possessed no 
 power of working miracles, though demanding belief in his 
 pretensions. The following is the reply which, according to 
 the Koran, was given to the above-mentioned challenges — 
 " Praise be to the Lord ! Am I more than a man, an apo- 
 stle? And what hindereth men from believing, when the 
 guidance hath come to them, but that they say. Hath God 
 sent a man as an apostle?" (Surah xvii. 95, 96.) In full 
 agreement with this we read in Surah vi. 109, that Mohammed 
 replied to those who swore by God a solemn oath that they 
 would believe in him if a sign were shown them — " Signs are 
 in the power of God alone ; but He teacheth you not thereby, 
 because, even if they were wrought, you w^ould not believe." 
 And in Surah xiii. 8, after the unbelievers are made to sa}^, 
 " If a si^n from his Lord be not sent down to him we will not 
 believe," Mohammed is thus comforted for not being a worker 
 of miracles — *' Thou art a warner only, and every people has 
 its guide." From these quotations, and other similar pas- 
 sages, it appears with sufficient clearness, that if ever Moham- 
 med performed a miracle, the Koran does not record it, hut, on 
 the contrary y representsjiim as not possessed of any miraculous 
 power. Now, bearing in mind that it was on this very ground 
 his claim to a divine mission w^as repudiated by the more 
 thinking of his countrymen ; that, unlike the earlier prophets, 
 miracles formed no part of his credentials, while yet an inten- 
 tion runs all through the Koran to represent him as the last 
 and greatest of prophets, it is self-evident he is called " a 
 warner or preacher only," because, in reality, he was nothing 
 more. But if this representation of the Koran be true— and 
 who can doubt it?— then it follow^s of necessity that themiracJea 
 ascribed to him hy tradition rest on no basis of historical fact, 
 but had their origin in the affectionate remembrance with which 
 all Moslems regarded the memory of so extraordinary and 
 gifted a man. As, in the eyes of all true Moslems, Mohammed 
 
 E 
 
50 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 is tlie greatest of prophets, and tliey knew that former pro- 
 phets had attested their mission by signs and wonders, it must 
 have appeared to them a matter of course, that he, in virtue of 
 his pre-eminence", should also exercise supernatural powers ; 
 and as whatever tended to exalt the prophet was universally 
 approved, it was an easy task for the glowing imagination and 
 ardent affections of the early Moslems to fill up the void left 
 by history. This seems the only reasonable way in which 
 to reconcile the otherwise contradictory statements of the 
 Koran and the assertions of tradition. If, then, on the 
 ground of the document enjoying the highest authority among 
 the Moslems — i.e. of the Koran itself — the conclusion forces itself 
 ufon us that Mohammed has never performed any miracle 
 whatever, we must allow that his claims are not supported by 
 that proof which places the divine mission of Moses and 
 Jesus Christ so completely beyond all suspicion — the proof of 
 miracles ; and that the absence of it most seriously compro- 
 mises the prophet of Arabia in the opinion of every candid 
 mind ; while the doubts which are thus occasioned are rather 
 increased than diminished by the zeal with which Moslem 
 tradition has laboured to make up for the silence of history. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IS THE TEACHING OF ISLAM AS SUPERIOR TO THAT OF THE GOSPEL, AS 
 THE TEACHING OF THE GOSPEL IS TO THAT OF THE MOSAIC LAW 1 
 
 Fatal as that which has already been advanced must appear 
 to the pretension of Islam as the last and highest stage in the 
 development of the true religion, the points we have still to 
 consider would alone suffice to decide the question ; for it is 
 now our duty to examine the revelation or teaching of Islam 
 itself, and to compare it with the revelation or teaching of 
 the religion which it professes to supersede, in order to ascer- 
 tain whether it really contains a new, a better, and higher 
 revelation. * 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 51 
 
 Every one knows that the value of an assertion depends 
 entirely upon the solidity and strength of its 'proof. All rea- 
 sonable men act upon this principle in matters of every-day 
 life. If, e. g., a man were to assert that he had invented a 
 new musket, so greatly preferable to all now in use, that 
 those might be safely dispensed with as antiquated and unfit 
 for retention side by side with the new invention, what would 
 governments do whose desire it is to put the best weapons 
 into the hands of their soldiers ? Would they at once adopt 
 the pretended new and superior one, on the claim of the in- 
 ventor, and convert those they had forthwith into old iron ? 
 Certainly not. We all know that in such a case the govern- 
 ment would say. We must first examine your musket, and 
 compare it with those now in use, to ascertain whether it is 
 better or not. And such a course is the only reasonable one. 
 Now, if they found on examination that the supposed new 
 and superior weapon had indeed a beautifully-carved shaft 
 and a glittering barrel, but was only a flint matchlock after 
 all, somewhat different from those formerly used indeed, but 
 neither shooting as far nor as accurately as the present Enfield 
 rifles, would they not say to the inventor, " It is impossible 
 for us to adopt your invention, for what we possess already 
 is better than what you offer?" So, likewise, if it be asserted 
 that Islam is a higher form of the true religion than Chris- 
 tianity, it is neither wise nor just at once to accept the asser- 
 tion without proof The first duty evidently is to examine 
 whether the teaching of the Koran is really higher, nobler, 
 and better than that of the Gospel, and only if found to be so 
 would it be right to give up Christianity and embrace Islam ; 
 but if it turned out the reverse were true, it would be as 
 wrong to give up the Gospel for the Koran, as it would be 
 foolish in a soldier to exchange the efficient rifle of the present 
 day for the matchlock of a century ago* But should any 
 Moslems say, " This argument does not exactly apply to our 
 case, as it is not for us now to ask whether we ought to em- 
 brace Islam, having done so long ago," such an objection has 
 no force ; for if it had been right at any time to have embraced 
 the Gospel instead of the Koran, it must be right now to give 
 up the Koran and embrace the Gospel. The principles acted 
 
 E 2 
 
{ 
 
 52 FOOD FOli REFLECTION. 
 
 on in daily life again bear ont this statement. When the 
 Sublime Porte learned that the other nations of Europe no 
 longer used matchlocks, but a much more efficient weapon, it 
 did not say, " Because Ave have now been using matchlocks 
 for several centuries, we cannot change them, for they are 
 much better than the bows and arrows which we used before." 
 But what did the Sublime Porte do? Every one knows, that 
 after having convinced itself of the superiority of the weapons 
 now used in Christian countries, it was wise enough to make the 
 most strenuous exertions to get rid of the old matchlocks, and 
 supply their place with the superior weapon of friendly Chris- 
 tian neighbours. Every rational Osmanli must approve this 
 course taken by his government ; therefore, if consistent with 
 himself, he must also acknowledge, that if now, after a careful 
 and thoughtful examination, the Moslems find the religion of 
 the Gospel superior to that of the Koran, they ought to give up 
 the latter and embrace the former, although many bygone 
 generations had not light and experience enough to recognise 
 this duty. There can be no doubt, that /or tlie present gene- 
 ration of Mohammedaris also it is of the utmost importance to 
 know clearly ivhether the Koran really is ichat they believe aiid 
 the Christians deny, namely, a, higher development of divine 
 truths than the Gospel. But this is not possible, so long as 
 they only read the Koran or Mohammedan writings ; and it 
 must be clear as daylight, that every Moslem who wishes to 
 arrive at the truth on this momentous question will have care- 
 fully to examine the Gospel, and, if he can, other Christian 
 writings. The comparison we are now going to institute 
 between the doctrines of the Koran and the Gospel, as already 
 made between the Gospel and the Law (see p. 15), will, we 
 trust, help the Bloslem reader to obtai?i a correct vieiv of the 
 relative position of Mohammedaiiism and Christianity, and to 
 ascertain which of the two represents the higher stage of re- 
 vealed truth. 
 
 1 . The Doctrine of God. 
 
 We have found above, where we considered the relation be- 
 tween the Law and the Gospel (see p. 15), that the belief in 
 which both Moslems and Christians agree is well founded, 
 namely, that the Gospel contains a higher relation of God's 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION". 53 
 
 trutli tlian tlie Law. This belief was fully borne out and 
 justified by a comparison of the respective teaching of the two 
 books on a number of important subjects. The first of these 
 was the doctrine of God ; and on this head \a'^ noticed particu- 
 larly two heads on which the superiority of the one over the 
 other was manifest, viz. first, that whilst the Law regarded God 
 chiefly as the almighty and omniscient Creator of the world, 
 or the righteous and merciful Lord of man, or the Divine 
 King (by special covenant) of the people of Israel, the Gospel 
 regarded Him especially as a loving Father, who seeks to lead 
 His children in the path of righteousness and happiness ; and 
 secondly, that whilst the Law only dimly foreshadows, the 
 Gospel clearly reveals, God, the eternally One, in an adorable 
 Trinity of Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
 equally interested in our salvation, and having actually accom- 
 plished it. Now if the Koran is really a higher revelation 
 than the Gospel, it must necessarily throw a still fuller and 
 brighter light upon all these points. But, alas ! if we examine 
 its pages, how sadly are our expectations disappointed I 
 
 Instead of finding additional proofs and more striking illus- 
 trations of God's paternal love towards man, that sweetest, 
 most touching and comfort ingname oi Father is not even once 
 mentioned among the ninety-nine appellations which the Mos- 
 lems find given him in the Koran. We are constantly ex- 
 horted to remember that God is the righteous judge and 
 requiter of man's deserts, and that He is infinitely exalted 
 above us and every other creature ; and we are told over and 
 over again, on almost every page, that God alone is almighty, 
 and knoweth every thing, even the secrets of our inmost 
 hearts ; nor is the praise of God's kindness and mercy at all 
 neglected. All these, and similar statements found in the 
 Koran, are quite true ; but they contain nothing new, nothing 
 that is not already known from the Gospel, yea, nothing that is 
 not already found even in the Psalms and the Law. To men- 
 tion only one particular : the omnipresence and omniscience of 
 God is so beautifully and touchingly described in Psalm cxxxix., 
 that in the whole Koran there is not a single passage describ- 
 ing it with more, or even equal force and beauty. The actual 
 fact of the case, then, is this, that Me Koran, instead of reveal- 
 
54 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 ing the love of God towards man, and His paternal dealings 
 with him more fully than the Gospel, does not reveal it as 
 clearly and fully hy far, nay, it abhors the idea of a Father; 
 and that, therefore, it cannot have been intended by God to 
 supersede the Gospel ; and its appearance, after the Gospel, is 
 therefore a strange anomaly. 
 
 So with regSLvd to the doctrine of the "Trinity in Unity, '*^ 
 it is notorious that the Koran, instead of revealing it more fully 
 than the Gospel3does not throw any light upon it, -hut rejects it 
 altogether as opposed to its notions of the divine Bei7ig, and 
 consequently falls back, not upon the stand-point of the Old 
 Testament, where this doctrine had at least been dimly fore- 
 shadowed, but on the stand-point of a mere natural religion 
 which is entirely ignorant of the inner life of God, and only 
 knows Him from His works, as the Creator, the Preserver, the 
 Ruler, and the Judge. If the Koran insists with such force 
 upon the doctrine of the Unity, as to assert it on almost every 
 page, it insists upon a doctrine which is perfectly orthodox, 
 and which every true believer holds fast against the errors of 
 polytheism ; but this doctrine is not new, not one of which 
 the world would be destitute without the Koran; for it is 
 already taught in the Old and New Testaments with a dis- 
 tinctness and authority to which nothing can be added by all 
 the repetitions of the Koran. While, therefore, asserting with 
 great emphasis that " there is no God but God," the Koran 
 only placed itself upon common ground with the Thorah and 
 the Gospel : by rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, dimly 
 iatimated in the one, and clearly taught in the other, it re- 
 ceded from the height of revelation already attained before the 
 thue of the Arabian prophet. This is a fact so unquestionable, 
 that every Moslem who carefully compares the Koran and the 
 Gospel must allow it. But the consequence inevitably result- 
 ing from it is in the highest degree prejudicial to the Koran 
 as a book of God ; for although it is quite natural that God 
 should at an early time reveal His truth only partially, or as 
 far as the people were prepared for it, and at a later time 
 more fully, because they were then ready for more ; yet it is 
 neither natural nor credible, that, after having once revealed 
 His truth clearly and fully to mankind in one book. He should 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 55 
 
 again reveal it to them dimly and partially in another. This 
 is as little probable as that a teacher, after having taught his 
 scholars to read fluently, would again send them back to the 
 alphabet. But God is certainly the best and Wisest of teachers ; 
 we can therefore leave it safely to the judgment of every 
 candid Mussulman to decide whether the Koran can be a re- 
 velation from God to mankind, seeing that it reveals less than 
 was already revealed before it in the Gospel. 
 
 As the Koran knows nothing of a " Trinity in Unity, ^^ it 
 must naturally also fall short of the teaching of the Gosjjel 
 respecting the accomplishment of man^s salvation and regene^ 
 ration by the three Persons of the blessed Trinity. Besides 
 many other passages of a similar character, we read in the 
 Gospel as follows — " Not by works of righteousness which we 
 have done, but according to His mercy, God saved us, by the 
 washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost 
 wdiicli He shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour; that, being justified by His grace, we should be made 
 heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (^See Tit. iii. 5 — 7.) 
 Here we read the important truth which no human mind 
 could have discovered, and could only have been received by 
 divine revelation, that man is not saved by his own works, 
 but by the mercy of God ; that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, 
 i,e, that by His merits and death we obtain forgiveness of sins, 
 and are justified before God ; that we must be born again and 
 renewed by the Holy Spirit; and that only thus we can 
 hope to inherit eternal life and glory. Two important, and 
 apparently contradictory truths are here brought into beauti- 
 ful harmony, namely, on the one hand that man is not saved 
 by his own good works, but that God alone, as Father, Son 
 and Holy Ghost, saves man, and brings him to eternal blessed- 
 ness ; and on the other hand, that a man thus saved by grace 
 alone must yet not lead a life of carelessness and sin, because 
 purity, veracity, love, and all virtues naturally result from the 
 indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as good fruit naturally grows 
 upon good trees. Now if we ask what further light the Koran 
 throws upon these important subjects, the answer is, that it 
 knows nothing whatever of a Father in heaven "who so 
 loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son that all who 
 
\ 
 
 56 FOOD FOR REFLECTION . 
 
 believe In Illm should not perish, but have everlasting life ;" 
 that it knows nothing of a divine Saviour who took upon 
 Himself our flesh, that in a perfectly human life He might de- 
 feat Satan in all bis temptations ; and that by His meritorious 
 death He might become a sacrifice for our sins, and deliver 
 those who, through fear of death, were all their life- time sub- 
 ject to bondage ; and that it knows nothing of the abiding 
 Comforter or Holy Spirit who fills the hearts of believers with 
 light, joy, and peace, and enables them to live a life of holi- 
 ness and visefulness in this world, and to become meet for 
 the blessedness and glory of the world to come. Iiistead of 
 iminling out this divine ivay of salvation more clearly than the 
 Gospel, the Koran leaves man again to the hopeless task of 
 meriting salvation by his own ivorks, such as public prayers, 
 alms, fasting, pilgrimages, &c., and thereby places itself upon 
 a level with many heathen religions, e. g. with Brahmanism and 
 Buddhism, which recommend the very same means to obtain 
 eternal happiness. It Is therefore a fact of which there can 
 be no doubt with the well-informed, that the doctrine of God 
 and His relation to man, especially in man's salvation, not 
 only receives no further development in the Koran, but that 
 the development to which it had already attained in the 
 Gospel is given up, and a return made to views which had 
 been entertained for centuries before Christ came into the 
 w^orld. From this it must appear evident to every one who Is 
 not blinded by prejudice, that on whatever else the claim of 
 Islam may rest to being the highest and last revelation, it can- 
 not be its doctrine of God. 
 
 2. The Service and Worship of God. 
 
 Above, where we compared the Jewish and the Christian 
 religion (p. 18), we found that the latter was superior to the 
 former, because it disjoined the service of God from many 
 outward ceremonies and burdensome rules concerning times 
 and places, thus making it a service " in spirit and in truth," 
 and because it insists upon a living faith in the divinely-ap- 
 pointed Saviour, instead of those ritual observances, and upon 
 a complete renewal or regeneration of heart and life. Here, 
 therefore, it becomes our duty to ask, what is the teaching of 
 Islam upon these subjects ? and how does that teaching justify 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 57 
 
 tlie assertion of the Mohammedans, tliat their religion is more 
 developed and elevated than that of Jesus Christ? What, 
 then, is the brighter light in which the Koran sets forth the 
 doctrine of faith in the Saviour of sinners ,"> and the doctrine 
 of regeneration ? and ivhat is the more effectual help it affords 
 to obtain that faith and to experience that regeneration? Alas 
 for the answer we must give to these questions ! Whilst we are 
 told in the Gospel, that already before the birth of the Messiah 
 the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph, saying, " Thou 
 shalt call His name Jesus, i. e. Saviour ; for He shall save His 
 people from their sins," (Matt. i. 21); tJie Koran not onlg ob- 
 serves a complete silence on the subject of Jesus Christ being 
 the Saviour of sinners, but it even asserts that He ivas a 
 Prophet, and nothing more, e. g. in Surah v. 79, ^' The Mes- 
 siah, son of Mary, is but an apostle ; other apostles have 
 flourished before Him." 
 
 Now if man's present state were only one of ignorance and 
 error, it might suffice to have a mere apostle or prophet to 
 teach him the truth ; but as he is by nature not only ignorant 
 and erring, but also in bondage to sin and Satan, a mere teacher 
 is not enough, and if he would not be lost eternally, he must 
 have a Saviour. This want of man is fully met by the Gospel 
 because it points out Jesus Christ as both a Prophet and 
 Saviour sent from God. But as the Koran only speaks of 
 prophets, and not of a Saviour, we would seem justified in 
 concluding either that it was not fully aware of man's actual 
 necessities, or, being aware of them, did not supply the means 
 for their removal; and in either case its doctrines on this 
 head would be less satisfactory than those of the Gospel. 
 
 So likewise with regard to the doctrine of regeneration and 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost, upon which so much stress is laid 
 throughout the Gospel, and of which Jesus Christ said, " Ex- 
 cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God'* 
 (John iii. o), the Koran not only throws no further light upon 
 it, but it does not so much as even refer to it. Yet every one 
 who has a judgment in spiritual things must see that such a 
 regeneration or renewal of heart and life, according to the will 
 of God, must be a much more acceptable service to Him 
 than the performance of ever so man}- external rites, whilst 
 
\ 
 
 58 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 the heart is not truly turned to Hun, Yea, we know from 
 God's own word that He attaches no value to formal prayers 
 and religious observances, when the heart is given up to sin ; 
 for thus He addressed the Jews of old through the Prophet 
 Isaiah, "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomi- 
 nation unto me ; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of 
 assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn 
 meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my 
 soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear 
 them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide 
 mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make many prayers, I 
 will not hear : your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make 
 you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before 
 mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judg- 
 ment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
 the widow." (Isa. i. 13 — 17.) Nevertheless, the Koran lays 
 the chief stress upon man's confession of the doctrine of the 
 Unity, and upon the observance of a number of religious 
 ceremonies, as if such a confession and such an observance 
 could save a man from damnation, and procure for him 
 eternal blessedness, whilst it cannot be hid from the thoughtful 
 observer that it is quite possible to be loud in the confession 
 of the Unity, and punctual in the observance of religious 
 forms, and yet remain inwardly estranged from God, and 
 addicted to grievous sins. 
 
 The Gospel chiefly urges us to glorify God by sincere re- 
 pentance and genuine faith in the Saviour of sinners, no less 
 than by earnestly seeking the renewing influences of the Holy 
 Spirit, and worshipping the only true God in spirit and in 
 truth. While the Gospel thus emancipates the believer from 
 those many outward forms and religious ceremonies which 
 were in use among the Jews in the days of Jesus {see e. g. 
 Mark vii. 3, 4), and makes His worship a truly reasonable 
 service (Rom. xii. 1), the Koran returns again to mamj of 
 these elementary forms and outivard usages which are alia- 
 racteristic of a less elevated and spiritual religion. 
 
 This is well illustrated by the ceremonial observances ivith 
 which Moslem prayer is inseparably connected. The Moham- 
 medan doctors enumerate no less than twelve requisites to a 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 59 X 
 
 true and acceptable prayer, and maintain that if any one of 
 these is wanting, the wliole prayer is useless, and rejected by 
 God. But if we examine their directions, we find that, instead 
 of giving such spiritual injunctions as the N^w Testament does, 
 by requiring a prayer to be simple, unostentatious, humbly 
 sincere, earnest, fervent, believing, &c., they refer only to un- 
 important external accidents. 
 
 It may not be amiss to consider these requisites a little more 
 closely. The twelve requisites are divided into seven external 
 conditions, and five internal pillars, or essentials. The former 
 are, the observance of the Kibla, the previous ablutions, the 
 cleaning of the place of prayer, the proper time of beginning, 
 the actual purposing to pray, the body being decently covered, 
 and the beghming the prayer by the exclamation, "Allah 
 akbar 1" 
 
 The institution of the Kibla, or the direction in which the 
 Moslems have to turn their faces in prayer, we find thus re- 
 corded in Surah ii. 139 — " We have seen thee turning thy 
 face towards every part of heaven; but we will have thee 
 turn to a Kibla which shall please thee. Turn thy face 
 towards the sacred mosque, and wherever ye be, turn your 
 faces towards that part." This verse not only proves that 
 the observance of a local Kibla in prayer forms part of the 
 religion of Islam ; but we can also gather from it that the 
 temple of Mecca had not hitherto been looked upon as such by 
 the Arabs, and that it was not till some time after Mohammed 
 claimed to be a prophet that it was so regarded. The insti- 
 tution itself, therefore, was not of Arabic origin ; and it is 
 highly probable Mohammed adopted it from the Jews. This 
 would appear from the circumstance that the Jews, from very 
 ancient times, made the temple at Jerusalem their Kibla, as 
 we may fairly gather from passages such as Psalm v. 7, 
 Isaiah ii. 4, Dan. vi. 10 ; and still more plainly from the fact ^ 
 that Mohammed himself for inanyj^^ears turned to Jerusalem . y\/^ iHoLa 
 as his Kibla, a fact recorded by Arabic historians, e, g. Tabari, 
 and also alluded to in the Koran, Surah, ii. 136— "The fooHsh 
 ones will say. What has turned them from the Kibla which 
 they used ?" It may therefore be looked upon as a fact of 
 which little doubt can be entertained, that Mohammed accepted 
 
\ 
 
 Co FOOD FOR IlEFLECTION. 
 
 the idea of a Kibla from tlie Jews ; tliat for a considerable 
 time he agreed with tliem in turning towards their temple in 
 Jerusalem, though he ended by adopting the shrine of Mecca 
 for his Kibla. But however this may be, one thing is cer- 
 tain, namely, that with regard to this observance of a Kibla, 
 the religion of the Moslems stands exactly on the same level 
 ivith that of the Jews, and that the Christian system is in this 
 particular decidedly superior to both, having entirely dropped 
 the observance of a Kibla, as inconsistejit with the absolute 
 spirituality of God, and in no way assisting in the ivorship of 
 Him. Christians act up to the truth once expressed in the 
 Koran (Surah ii. 109)—'' The east and the west are God's : 
 therefore, whichever way ye turn, there is the face of God ;" 
 and the rejection of a Kibla with them naturally springs from 
 the full recognition of the spirit of this passage in Isaiah Ivii. 
 15 — «f Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eter- 
 nity, whose name is Holy : I dwell in the high and holy place, 
 with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive 
 the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the con- 
 trite ones." Y^j / ^ * I /. 
 
 Next to the Kibla, the ablutions or lustrations are mentioned 
 which the orthodox Moslem has to regard as an essential 
 requisite to acceptable prayer. They are enjoined in the 
 Koran in these words (Surah v. 8, 9) — " O believers, when ye 
 address yourselves to prayer, wash your faces, and your hands 
 up to the elbow, and wipe your heads, and your feet to the 
 ankles. And if ye find no water, then take clean sand, and 
 rub your faces and your hands with it." If this direction had 
 been given merely to insure cleanliness among the people, we 
 should not have a word here to say against it ; but if it is 
 made an indispensable condition of acceptable prayer, we 
 naturally remember the word of God to the Prophet Samuel, 
 which is thus recorded in 1 Sam. xvi. 7 — " The Lord seeth 
 not as man seeth ; for man looketh on the outward appearance, 
 but the Lord looketh on the heart." But after such a decla- 
 ration, every thoughtful man may see that lustrations before 
 prayer can at best have a mere symbolical meaning, in no 
 way affecting the prayer itself, or its acceptability to God. It 
 is not even expressly stated, that ablutions before prayer were 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION, 61 
 
 observed by the Jews, although we know that eternal and 
 typical purifications of this kind were common amongst them. 
 {See Num. xix. ; Lev. xv. ; Mark vii. 1 — 4,) Certain it is 
 tliat Jesus Christ never prescribed any sucii to his follow^ers 
 as a condition of true prayer ; and in what light He would 
 regard such an injunction may be gathered from Matt, xxiii. 
 2d, 26 — '^ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, 
 for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, 
 but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind 
 Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, 
 that the outside of them may be clean also." {See also Mark 
 vii. 6 — 23.) And it is therefore plain that the washing of 
 hands and feet can add nothing to the efficiency of prayer 
 which is necessarily a mental and spiritual exercise : the Kotxin, 
 hy insisting upon lustrations before frayeri enjoins a needless 
 outward observance no way helpful to real devotion. It is also 
 w^orth remembering, that while for the bare-footed Arabs, and 
 other inhabitants of hot countries, it is an easy and pleasant 
 aff'air to w^ash their arms and feet frequently during the day, 
 the command would prove exceedingly irksome to more 
 civilized people accustomed to wear shoes and stockings ; and 
 as to the inhabitants of northern latitudes, where the snow 
 never melts, and the people are thickly clad from head to foot 
 to keep them from freezing, it tvould become a hardship en- 
 dangering health and life, to he obliged partially to undress 
 a7id loash their hands and feet five times a day, either with 
 water or with sand. We see, then, the objection to these 
 lustrations is two- fold: their purely physical character, after 
 the Gospel had already declared that God requires spiritual 
 worship, and their striking w^ant of adaptation to countries 
 and climates differing from Arabia. 
 
 The cleaning of the place of prayer is doubtless very 
 proper, like cleanliness in general, and due care for con- 
 secrated thino-s; but it can have no more to do with the 
 prayer itself than the washing of the body ; and how it should 
 depend upon an external act of this kind must be incompre- 
 hensible to any one who remembers that God is a Spirit, and 
 " dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Can any one 
 doubt that the earnest prayers of persecuted believers who 
 
\ 
 
 62 FOOD FOR REFLECTION". 
 
 had to assemble for divine worship in dark caves or lonely 
 mountain-tops were more acceptable to God than prayers in 
 the finest and cleanest mosque or church, if not proceeding 
 from a devout belifevino; heart ? 
 
 But as all this is sufficiently clear, we may, without further 
 dwelling on the remaining conditions above mentioned, at 
 once pass on to the five '^ internal pillars" or essentials of a 
 true prayer. They are, — the standing erect, the rehearsal of 
 portions of the Koran and other forms, the bending forward 
 with the whole body, the prostration in which to touch the 
 earth with the forehead, and the sittincp on the thio-hs after 
 prayer. After reading this, can the true and spiritual 
 worshipper of God help exclaiming, " Alas for a religion that 
 can regard such externals as the internal essentials of 
 genuine prayer !" It is true, they are not all expressly in- 
 sisted upon in the Koran, but they are found in the earliest 
 traditions, so that there can be no doubt Mohammed himself 
 prescribed and practised them, as his followers have done 
 ever since. The unspiritual, external character of four out 
 of these five points is so self-evident, that we need not enlarge 
 upon them. The remaining point, viz. the i-ehearsing, might 
 possibly be of a nature to compensate in some degree for their 
 want of spirituality. But, alas ! upon investigation, how far 
 otherwise do we find it ! Even this rehearsing hears the im- 
 j)ress, not of an elevated and spiritual, hut of a most formal and 
 mechanical religion. To illustrate this, it will be sufficient to 
 advert to the fact, that during the five daily prayers enjoined 
 upon every Moslem, the first Surah of the Koran and several 
 other formulas are repeated forty times, the words '^ Subhana 
 rabbiya-la"ala," ?*. e. '^ Praised be the highest Lord," 120 
 times; and the ejaculation, '^Allahu akbar," i. e. "God is 
 great," 221 times; whilst the words, "Subhana rabbiya- 
 l-"azim," i. e. " Praised be the great Lord," are repeated no 
 less than 240 times. Human nature must change, before such 
 a practice, carried on day after day, from one year's end to 
 another, can issue in aught else than a most withering and 
 deadening formalism, so that the warning of the Lord Jesus, 
 recorded in Matt. vi. 7, 8, becomes truly applicable — " When 
 ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do : for 
 
/ 
 
 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 63 
 
 they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 
 Be not ye, therefore, like unto them : for your Father knoweth 
 what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." 
 
 Besides prayer, the pilgrimage to the shrz)ie of Mecca has to 
 he regarded by the Moslems as part of their divine service. This 
 we learn from Surah xc. 91 — " The first temple that was 
 founded for mankind was that in Becca, blessed, and a 
 guidance to human beings. In It are evident signs, even the 
 standing-place of Abraham : and he who entereth it is safe. 
 And the pilgrimage to the temple is a service due to God from 
 those who are able to journey thither." The obligation thus 
 laid upon the Moslems corresponds to that once binding on 
 the Jews of visiting the ark of the covenant, and, later, 
 the temple of Jerusalem, three times a year. (Compare 
 Exod. ij^xlii. 17 ; Deut. xvi. 16.) This latter ordinance, re- 
 specting the Jews, rested upon the promise given them by 
 God, that he would especially dwell and reveal Himself to 
 them in that chosen sanctuary, as w^e can gather from Exod. 
 xxv. 22 ; Num. vii. 89 ; Deut. xii. 5 — 14. But at a later 
 period, when God had suffered their nation to be broken up, 
 on account of their many sins {see 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13 — 19), 
 He made the person of the Lord Jesus Christ a new temple in 
 which to reveal Himself to man (see John ii. 19. 21 ; iv, 6. 9 ; 
 Heb. i. 2, 3), and poured out His Holy Spirit into the hearts 
 of believers, making them likewise temples of the living God. 
 (See Acts II.; 1 Cor. Hi. 16, 17; 2 Cor. vi. 16.) This is the 
 great fulfilment of which His dwelling in Israel's sanctuary 
 was only a type. After this it could not be expected that He 
 should again choose any particular temple, constructed by 
 human hands, in order to make it the place of His special 
 manifestation to mankind. Accordingly the Gospel enjoins 7io 
 pilgrimage to any place whatsoever, and the word of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ must hold good to the end of time, which we find 
 written in John iv. 2L 23 — " The hour cometh when ye 
 shall neither In this mountain (?. e, on Gerizim, near Nablus), 
 nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father; but the true 
 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : 
 for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." If, therefore, 
 the religion of Islam again points to a stone-built temple in a 
 
G4 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 special locality, and enjoins people to take pilgrimages thitlicr, 
 in order thus to obtain blessings which cannot be procured 
 elsewhere, it recedes from the high standard of spirituality 
 attained by the Christian religion, and returns to a position 
 which has been long since abandoned. 
 
 Fasting during the month of Rhamadan may also he men- 
 tioned as one of the religious duties enjoined upon the Moslems. 
 It is ordained for them in Surah ii. 179 — 183 in these terms — 
 " O believers, a fast is prescribed to you, as it was prescribed 
 to those before you, that ye may fear God. As to the month 
 of Rhamadan, in which the Koran was sent down to be man's 
 guidance, as soon as any one of you observeth the moon, let 
 him set about the fast; but he who is sick, or upon a journey, 
 shall fast a like number of other days." The clause "As it 
 was prescribed to those before you," is an intimation that the 
 custom of fasting was, like many others, adopted from the 
 Israelites. In fact, w^e learn from Arabic historians, e. g. Ta- 
 bari, that Mohammed at first observed for a number of years 
 the well-known Jewish fast of the Atonement, which was even 
 called by its Hebrew name " Ashur^'' i.e. the tenth, because it 
 always took place on the tenth day of the seventh month of 
 the Jews. (Lev. xxiii. 27.) But when his power increased in 
 Medina, and the breach between him and the Jew^s grew 
 wider, he superseded the Ashur, by introducing the Rhama- 
 dan fast. Now the New Testament by no means prohibits 
 fasting ; on the contrary, it leaves every one free to fast, if he 
 finds such abstinence necessary in order the better to over- 
 come sinful appetites, or the more efficiently to accomplish spi- 
 ritual duties (see Matt. iv. 2 ; vi. 16, 17; ix. 15; Actsxiii. 2, 3); 
 but in no part of the New Testament is there a command to ab- 
 stain from food binding on all, either for a single day amongst 
 the Jews, or for a whole month among the Mohammedans. If 
 some Christians, namely those belonging to the Latin, Greek, 
 and Armenian churches, observe a kind of general fast, they 
 do so from regard to an ancient custom, and not in obedience 
 to any command in the word of God ; but the great church of 
 England, and all other Protestant churches throughout the 
 world, do not impose such a burden equally on the necks of 
 all, but only recommend the practice of sobriety and abstinence 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTIOX. ' G5 
 
 in general, and leaA^e its detailed application to the enlightened 
 conscience of the individual believer. There can be no doubt 
 that a religion giving this latitude to the individual, on matters 
 of an external and subordinate nature, rar.-ks much hio-her 
 than another which, like Islam, seeks to enforce all things of 
 that kind by strict formal laws. For whatever is done spon- 
 taneously, and from pure love to God, partakes of the charac- 
 ter of a child's loving obedience to his parents ; but what is 
 done from mere submission to an unbending law, is more like 
 the forced obedience of a slave to his master. But it is not 
 merely on this general religious ground that a thinking believer 
 must doubt the propriety of the introduction of the Rhama- 
 dan fast, after the Gospel had set the example of not enforcing 
 such observances by law. There exist also special reasons 
 from which this institution appears to he opposed to the benignity ^ 
 equity, and wisdom of God, and therefore not .likely to have 
 been introduced with His sanction, or now enforced by His 
 approval. Though the Rhamadan fast may be kept in many 
 cases without injury to health, yet the observation of the most 
 eminent medical men goes to prove, that, in not a few cases, 
 the daily abstinence from all eating and drinking, and the 
 nightly free indulgence in both for a whole month, especially if 
 the Rhamadan falls in summer, is prejudicial to health, and 
 often lays the foundation of serious diseases. Would it therefore 
 be consistent with the goodness and wisdom of God to enjoin 
 a fast which in many cases destroys health, that best of man's 
 earthly blessings, whilst its moral object of self-restraint might 
 be obtained in other ways not endangering health ? Nor is 
 this all; for we have to consider the question from yet another 
 point of view. It is certain that Christianity claims to be a 
 imiversal religion, divinely intended for all men, and equally 
 suited to all the nations of the earth. As, therefore, Islam 
 assumes to be a religion superior to Christianity, it ought to 
 be better adapted to the varying circumstances of mankind 
 than the system it seeks to displace. But what is actually the 
 case with regard to the institution in question ? Every one at 
 all acquainted with geography knows that within the tropics 
 days and nights are equal all the year round, but that in the 
 temperate and arctic zones their rcsp'cctive lengths vary so 
 
 F 
 
66 FOOD FOR REFLECTION'. 
 
 much that, e. g,, in some localities the day may last four or 
 six times as long as the night, and vice versa. Now as the 
 Moslems have to fast during the Rhamadan from sun-rise 
 to sun-set, it miat follow that, whilst they within the tropics 
 had only to fast about twelve hours, those living in higher lati- 
 tudes (e. g. in Stamhul and further north) would have to do the 
 same for sixteen or twenty hours : hut how could this he coiisis- 
 tent with the perfect equity of God ? We know, moreover, that 
 about the 67 th degree north latitude the day lasts about one 
 month, about the 69th two, and about the 73d three months, 
 i. e. one, two, or three months intervene between a sun-rise 
 and the next sun-set. Now if the inhabitants of these northern 
 latitudes were to carry out the Mohammedan rule respecting 
 the Rhamadan fast, by abstaining from all eating and drinking 
 for only a single such day, the simple consequence would be, 
 death from starvation, long before the time had arrived to say 
 the mid-day prayer. From this it is clear as noon-day that 
 the existing rules of the Rhamadan fast are completely inap- 
 plicable to a whole portion of the human family, whilst it is a 
 matter of fact, that in those very regions there are already 
 thousands who confess the Christian religion, without finding 
 in it any precept the observance of which would be certain 
 death to them. It is therefore demonstrated, that so far from 
 being in this particular superior to Christianity, Islam could 
 not exist at all in its present form in vast noi^thern countries, 
 from the simple reason that the first Rhamadan ivould cause the 
 death of all its faithful observers. But would it be consis- 
 tent with the wisdom of God to enforce a law on man so ob- 
 viously inapplicable to the whole race ? Shall we believe that 
 the all-wise God made a mistake by giving a law which in 
 many countries could not be observed; or shall we believe that 
 Mohammed made a mistake by requiring all believers through- 
 out the world to fast every Rhamadan from sun-rise to sun- 
 set? We confidently leave the answering of these questions 
 to every thinking and right-minded Mussulman. 
 
 3. 21ie Kingdom of God. 
 
 When we considered the relation of Christianity to the 
 Mosaic dispensation in this respect (see p. 20), we noticed that 
 the advent of Jesus Christ was a most important turning-point 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 67 
 
 in the kingdom of God, which divested it of its preceding national 
 character, (involving also the discontinuance of the rite of cir- 
 cumcision) and which manifested it to be a kingdom truly 
 spiritual and universal, addressing itself to mati as such, with- 
 out distinction of race, rank, or sex, and seeking, in a purely 
 spiritual manner, without the use of compulsion or force, 
 simply by precept and example, to rectify and sanctify all his 
 relations to God and to his fellow-creatures. The kingdom of 
 God, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, can exist in- 
 dependently of the political combinations, or the social insti- 
 tutions and domestic habits of any one nation; it can be 
 established in a land without the least disturbing its temporal 
 government ; it is not of this world, and, unlike all others, 
 it is a kingdom of truth. On account of its truly spiritual and 
 specifically religious character, it is adapted to every condition 
 and every clime in which men are foimd, neither courting nor 
 revising the favour of rulers. Its object is not to extend the 
 power of any one nation in the world, but to promote the 
 glory of God and His reign in the heart of every man, in the 
 bosom of every family, and in the people of every land. All 
 who receive it, and submit to its influence, it cannot fail to 
 unite in the bonds of a holy brotherhood, making them better, 
 wiser, happier men here below, while preparing them for the 
 services and enjoyments of the world to come. Now, if the 
 assertion were correct that Mohammedanism is a higher reve- 
 lation than Christianity, would it not necessarily have to show 
 us the kingdom of God in a still higher and more spiritual 
 light, in a form more adapted to the circumstances of the 
 nations of the earth, and with still greater power to make men 
 truly happy, wise, and righteous in this world, and to furnish 
 them in death with a brighter hope of immortality and glory ? 
 It is well known to all persons really acquainted with both 
 systems and their working, that the actual state of things is 
 far otherwise. 
 
 To begin with the point last mentioned, viz. hope in death, 
 it is admitted that every Christian man sees in the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ a pledge and guarantee of his own, and that 
 to the true believer death has so completely lost its terrors, 
 that " to die " is to him a " falling asleep in Jesus" ( see 1 Cor. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 FOOD FOli REFLECTIUX. 
 
 XV. ; Acts vii. 60; 1 Thess. iv. 14); not a loss, but a most 
 desirable gain. (Phil. i. 21 ; Rev. xiv. 13.) Nor do we deny, 
 that although, most Moslems are afraid of death, yet their 
 religion says a great deal to make them desire the next world, 
 and that there have been instances of some who, especially 
 under the excitement of battle, could be heard to exclaim, 
 in the near prospect of death, " I think I already see the black- 
 eyed Houris of paradise beckoning me to come." But in 
 this very joy which some may have felt in the prospect of 
 death, there is something which marks their religion as less 
 heavenly and less spiritual than Christianity. The Moslems 
 joy J where it is found, is based on the expectation of sensual plea- 
 sures in the next world, such as splendid clothing, luxurious 
 eating and drinking, and dalliance with a host of tempting 
 Houris, &c. ; but the Christian's joy in prospect of death rests 
 on the assurance of coming to his Lord, and enjoying God's 
 presence in a new body, purified from all taint of sin, and 
 made perfect in holiness. {See 2 Cor. v. 1 — 9 ; Phil. i. 20 — 23 ; 
 Rom. viii. 10 — 25 ; Rev. xxi. 1 — 7.) In the Koran we read, 
 *' Theirs shall be Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls 
 hidden in their shells, in recompense of their past labours. Of 
 a rare creation have we created the Houris, and we have 
 made them ever virgins, dear to their spouses, of equal age 
 with them, for the people of the right hand, a crowd for the 
 former and a crowd for the latter generations." {See Surah 
 Ivi. 22, 23, 24 — 39.) But in direct contradiction of such 
 carnal views of the kingdom of God in the next world, we 
 read in the Gospel the following declaration of Jesus Christ 
 ^^ In the resurrection they neither marry 7wr are given in 
 inarriageyhut are as the angels of God in heaven'''' (i. e. not 
 living together as man and wife, as in this present world. See 
 Matt. xxii. 23 — 33). It is therefore evident to all, that in 
 this particular the Koran has declined from the exalted 
 spiritual views expressed in the Gospel, and sunk down to 
 views thoroughly material and earthly. 
 
 A similar retrogression may he seen in the retention of 
 circumcision^ which, amongst the Jews, was the sign of their 
 belonging to God's people ; for though its performance is not 
 demanded in the Koran, yet every one knows that the Moslems 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION 69 
 
 still practise it as a religious duty. But, from the Scriptures 
 above quoted (see p. 21), it is abundantly clear that the Chris- 
 tian religion no longer requires the circumcision of the flesh, 
 but in its stead purity of heart and life ; aAd therefore the 
 Mohammedan Sunnat, by still insisting upon it, enforces a 
 law of which God has already declared in the Gospel that He 
 no longer requires the observance. 
 
 But a most striking difference between Christianily and Is- 
 lamism concerns the very nature of the kingdom of God itself 
 We understand by that term, as already indicated, the pecu- 
 liar economy God has graciously introduced in this world, and 
 which He himself carries on by His chosen instruments, in 
 order to reclaim mankind from sin, and all the other conse- 
 quences of the fall, and to prepare them for heaven. Jesus 
 Himself laid the foundation of this kingdom while He was 
 upon the earth. It formally commenced on the day of Pen- 
 tecost. And how did He describe its character ? He declared 
 it to be a kingdom of truth, and, as such, divine and inward. 
 This we find stated both in the words that came from his own 
 lips, and in the inspired words of His apostles. Conse- 
 quently, neither Christ nor His apostles ever deposed any 
 earthly king or ruler for refusing to believe the Gospel. The 
 New Testament rather commands all men to be obedient to 
 civil magistrates, and even gave these commands at a time 
 when the civil magistrates were not only unbelievers, but 
 l^ersecutors of the faith. Mohammed, on the contrary, at 
 once assailed the Governments that would not yield him im- 
 plicit obedience, and occupied himself the first place both in 
 the mosque and in civil and military councils; so that, from the 
 commencement, Islamism appeared in the character not simply 
 of a religion, but of a worldly polity. While Jesus Christ 
 distinguished between religion and the state, saying, on one 
 occasion, " Give to Ccesar the things that are Caesar's, and to 
 God the things that are God's," 3Iohammed confounded reli- 
 gion and the state, arrogating to himself both the sacredness of 
 a messenger of God and the 'power of a C(Esar, A superficial 
 judge might perhaps say that the union of worldly power and 
 religion in Mohammedanism is a perfection, and the alsolutely 
 spiritual character of Christianity the reverse ; but in reality 
 
70 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 tJie identification of religion and the state in the one system 
 has proved a source of iceakness and decay to hoth, while the 
 distinctionof church and state in the other has turned out a 
 fountain of strength, and a safeguard against decay ; for the 
 poHtical aspect of Islamism being calculated to attract the 
 worldly-minded who cared more for power and earthly riches 
 than for truth, holiness, and communion with God, it could 
 not fail, as a religious institution, to be of a mixed and impure 
 character from its very origin ; whereas the purely spiritual 
 nature of Christianity, its declaimer of earthly grandeur, its 
 demand of entire self- dedication to God, and the long and 
 bloody persecution it underwent, must have acted from the 
 beginning as a check upon the worldly-minded, so that its 
 first ages reflected m great measure the heavenly purity and 
 elevation of its Founder, by the confession of enemies them- 
 selves. This glaring defect of Blohammedanisrn in identifying 
 religion ivith icorldly politics could not hut manifest itself in a 
 variety of ways, all of zvhich shoiv, that instead of being more 
 adapted to the religious ivants of mankind than Christianity j it 
 is decidedly less so, and consequently not a higher but a lower 
 form of religion. We have now to illustrate some of the evils 
 resulting from the inseparable connection just named. 
 
 The first of these, as considered in a religious point of view, 
 is, that Mohammed had to be followed by Chalifs, or successors. 
 Had he been the founder of a religion only, there would have 
 been no need of Chalifs after him, but merely of teachers to 
 propagate his tenets, and of people to practise them ; just as 
 the Lord Jesus Christ left no ChaUf to succeed him, but only 
 a number of preachers and teachers, through whose instrumen- 
 tality His religion spread far and wide, by its own inherent 
 power as such, and its adaptation to human nature. Jesus 
 Christ, as the Founder of Christianity, could have no suc- 
 cessor, because He himself has effected, once for all, a com- 
 plete salvation for the race, leaving nothing to be done except 
 to receive it with true and living faith ; and He needs no 
 successor for the further reason, that having risen from the 
 dead. He is still Himself invisibly present with His church, and 
 with every individual believer, as the Lord and ruler of their 
 hearts. But, because Mohammed founded not merely a reli- 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 gion, but also a worldly empire, which could not exist without 
 a visible head, therefore he had to be succeeded by Chalifs. 
 Mohammed being at the same time the Prophet and Sultan 
 of his followers, his second successor, Omar,»could consistently 
 assume for his title " Emir-el- Mamenin," i. e. the Commander 
 of the faithful. Mixed up as religion and politics are in Mo- 
 hammedanism, it cannot be denied that it was fully in accord- 
 ance with its spirit that the Chalifs claimed the obedience of 
 subjects from all Moslems, and that the latter should wish to 
 be governed only by the rightful successors of their Prophet. 
 But by doing so the Chalifs and Mohammedans outstepped 
 the limits of religion, and passed into the domain of worldly 
 government, the unavoidable consequence of which was, that 
 they had to participate in the ordinary fate of political institu- 
 tions. Being, then, not mere teachers of religion, hut secular 
 sovereigns, the Chalifs exposed themselves to the intrigues and 
 hostilities common in the ivorld, but alien to the spirit of true 
 religion, till, ere long, it was not uncommon to see the Moslem 
 world divided into hostile camps, leading to the actual effusion 
 of blood, so that, e.g., in the "battle of the Camel," only 
 twenty-five years after Mohammed's death, 10,000 Moslems 
 were slain by fellow-believers. It is also well known, that no 
 less than three of the first four Chalifs suffered a violent 
 death, one being stabbed by a Persian wishing to avenge the 
 wrongs of his country, and the two others falling by the hands 
 of Moslems, from political reasons ; while the last of these, 
 Ali, though the Prophet's nephew and son-in-law, never suc- 
 ceeded in subduing Moawiya and the Mohammedans of Syi'ia 
 who rejected his government ; and, after his death, his son 
 Hassan found it impossible to succeed his father in the Cha- 
 liphate, and had to leave it to their rival. It is also notorious 
 that the right of the first four Chalifs to the position they occu- 
 pied was much contested, and separated the Shiites and Su7i' 
 nites at last into two opposite parties, mutually hating, cursing^ 
 and combating each other. That these are serious evils and 
 elements of weakness and decay in Islamism from \hQ begin- 
 ning, and naturally resulting from the mixture of religion and 
 politics in the Koranic system, must be evident to every think- 
 ing man. It is true that there have also been religious wars 
 
72 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 amonoj several Christian nations, but these did not arise until 
 centuries after Christ's ascension into heaven, when, in times 
 of prevailing ignorance, the true faith, as taught in the Gospel, 
 was little understcjod and practised. 
 
 Another evil, springiiig from the same fruitful source of mis- 
 chief, manifested itself i)articularly loith regard to the non- 
 Moslems, While the Christians are taught in the Gospel to 
 look with pity on unbelievers as unfortunate wanderers from 
 the right way of God, who ought to be kindly invited to come 
 to the one heavenly Father, by true repentance and a living 
 faith in Jesus Christ whom He has sent to redeem them, the 
 Mohammedans are directed by their religion to regard all non- 
 Mohammedans., not only as infidels, but political enemies, 
 whom they must try to convert and subjugate by force. 
 Accordingly we read in Surah viii. 40, " Fight, then, against 
 the unbelievers till strife be at an end, and the religion be all 
 of it God's ;" and again, in v. 'o^, " O prophet, stir up the 
 faithful to the fight. Twenty of you who stand firm shall 
 vanquish two hundred : and if there be a hundred of you, 
 they shall vanquish a thousand of the infidels, for they are a 
 people void of understanding." That the purport of these and 
 similar passages in the Koran is really this, that the Moslems 
 were to compel, by force of arms, to obedience to their pro- 
 phet, when nations refused it, can be gathered from the sum- 
 mons sent by Mohammed, in the seventh year of the Hegira, 
 to the sovereigns of the surrounding empires to submit to his 
 authority, and the devastating wars by which the Mohamme- 
 dans afterwai'ds actually souc-ht to enforce obedience to that 
 summons, as well as from words spoken not long before His 
 death, according to the statement of Wakidi's secretary (page 
 133), " There shall not cease from the midst of my people a 
 party engaged in wars for the truth, even until Antichrist 
 appear." These injunctions were not lost upon the Moslems. 
 General history tells us how they strove to carry them out, 
 and how many countries were in consequence deluged with the 
 horrors and miseries of war, in the name of religion. Nor 
 were the sufferings of a country over, when it had passed 
 through the fires of a Mohammedan conquest. If the con- 
 quered people persevered in refusing to adopt a religion 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 73 
 
 brought to them by a conquering army, instead of self-deny- 
 ing, loving teachers, they were subjected to many trouble- 
 some and humiliating conditions. Not one country is known 
 ivhere the Moslems, after conquering it, treated the inhabitants 
 who were of another faith, as their fellow -c'lti:: ens, with equal 
 civil rights and duties. On the contrary, they ivere always 
 dealt with as an inferior, conquered race, ivho had to look up to 
 the Moslems as their masters. This practice was carried to 
 such an extent, that, even in official documents, contemptuous and 
 insulting ajjpellations used to he applied to them. So it became 
 abundantly manifest that the unnatural combination of reli- 
 gion and politics in Mohammedanism not only deprived the 
 religious element of its spirituality and purity, but also pre- 
 vented the Mohammedan governments from doing full justice 
 to that first and plainest of the duties of a government, 
 namely, to treat all their subjects with equality before the 
 law, without respect of persons, and to seek to benefit them all 
 alike. It is a real pleasure on this occasion to notice that in 
 the largest of the existing Moslem states, i.e. in Turkey, the 
 use of offensive terms in official documents, respecting subjects 
 of another faith, has now for some years been forbidden, and 
 the latter are now very nearly treated by those in authority 
 in the same way as the Moslems ; but it is well known that 
 this praiseworthy advance of a Mohammedan Government in 
 the path of justice and equity is by no means owing to the 
 teaching of the Koran, or the spirit of Islam, but to the wis- 
 dom with which the latest illustrious Sultans allowed them- 
 selves to be induced to benefit their realm by important re- 
 forms, adopted from the more advanced Christian Govern- 
 ments of Europe. Independently, therefore, of the wisdom 
 and goodwill of the sovereigns of Turkey, the reforms lately 
 effected in that land are calculated to reflect more honour on 
 Christianity than on Mohammedanism. At all events this 
 much is certain from what has been stated, that the mixture 
 of religion and politics in Moliammedanism, originating the 
 sanguinary wars, and organizing the vast armies that spread 
 it, brought untold misery upon the nations to which it was 
 offered, and that it caused the degradation and oppression to a 
 deplorable extent of any people once subjected to Mohammedan 
 
74 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 sivay. Christianity on the other hand, being a pure religion, 
 was from the commencement intended to spread only by the 
 peaceful means of persuasion and holy example ; so much so, 
 that if the government of any Christian land were to send 
 forth an army to compel Mohammedans or idolaters to em- 
 brace Christianity, such conduct would be equally repugnant 
 to the teaching of Christ, and the feelings of every true Chris- 
 tian. Now in spite of this difference, it is demonstrated that 
 the latter has already, and is now, spreading far more rapidly 
 throughout the world than the former. If, therefore, it is a 
 fact of indisputable certainty, not only that Christiaiiity 
 spreads more steadily and more ividely in the woi^ld than Islam, 
 but also that it confers its henejits upon those ivho embrace it, 
 ivithout causing bloodshed, oppression^ or insult to those who do 
 not, whilst Islam, from its very nature, is boujid to make war 
 against those who reject it, or, where it has the power, to keep 
 them in humiliating subjection, in order to confer its benefits, 
 such as they are, upon its professors ; then it must be easy 
 for every unprejudiced mind to discern which of the two reli- 
 gions in question can claim pre-eminence on the score of be- 
 nevolence or on the score of the adaptation of its nature and 
 constitution to the requirements of mankind. 
 
 But whilst it is certain that the politico-religious constitution 
 of Mohammedanism is calculated to prove injurious to non- 
 Moslems, it can by no means he proved that it is an unquali- 
 fied benefit to the Moslems themselves. On the contrary, even 
 for them it has some disadvantages which are but too obvious. 
 For as Islam makes no distinction between civil and relimous 
 laws, but derives them both equally from one source, its author ; 
 it follows that a thoroughly Mohammedan Government must 
 enforce the observance of religious ordinances with the same 
 rigour of the law, as the fulfilment of ordinary civil duties. 
 But this must prove a great snare and danger to true morality 
 amongst the Moslems ; for it is plain beyond contradiction 
 that a religious observance is only acceptable to God if it pro- 
 ceeds from religious motives, i.e. from obedience or love to 
 God ; and that if it proceeds from contrary motives, it has only 
 the form of religion, not its essence, and, in fact, becomes 
 hypocrisy. Now if a Moslem, e. g. wishes not to fast in Rha- 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTIOX. 7o 
 
 madan, because he believes that God does not require It of 
 him, but if he fasts nevertheless, from fear of being sent about 
 the town on a donkey, with its tail in his hand, the religious 
 observance which he performs is no longer a service to God, 
 but an hypocritical act; and thus Islam, by enforcing religious 
 practices with the threat of civil punishments, has become to 
 him a cause of hypocrisy, i.e. of sin. So likewise a Moham- 
 medan may become convinced that Islam is not the true reli- 
 gion, and may therefore wish to embrace another wdiich he 
 considers to be the true one ; but finding that such an act, 
 though it concerns no one but his own soul and God, would 
 yet be regarded as a civil crime punishable with death, he out- 
 wardly remains a Mussulman, though against his will, but 
 gives his heart and affections to another religion. Now has 
 not such a man also been led into hypocrisy by the strange 
 laws of Islam? What use can there be in forcing a man to 
 remain in a religion against his will ? It is plain that such 
 a law is not in conformity with God's own dealings ; for He 
 does not force any man to embrace or retain a religion against 
 his will, but addresses him with aro-uments and motives cal- 
 culated to influence that will, — arguments, the validity of 
 which man's own understanding, if rightly used, is able to per- 
 ceive, and motives, the force of which man's heart is capa- 
 ble of appreciating. We indeed find once the wise and 
 equitable injunction of the Koran, " Let there be no compul- 
 sion in religion" (Surah ii. 257) ; but this remains quite iso- 
 lated, and is deprived of all influence by others of an entirely 
 opposite character. Here it is not surprising, that, in spite of 
 such an isolated word of moderation, Mohammedanism, ivhere- 
 ever it was in power , never tolerated religious liberty , hut op- 
 pressed^ as much and as long as it could , all other religions ; 
 and it is no secret, that down to our own times the orthodox Mus- 
 sulmans who have hept aloof from the more humane influences 
 of Christianity, have always considered it a sacred duty to kill 
 any one of their number who dared to embrace another religion. 
 How very different from this is the whole spirit of the Gospel, 
 and how instructive what we read in John vi. %Q — 68 ; namelv, 
 that on one occasion, when some of the disciples of Christ had 
 taken offence at the truths He uttered, and left Him, He 
 addressed these words to His twelve Apostles, " Will ye also 
 
76 FOOD FOR REFLECTIONr 
 
 go away ?" whereupon one of them answered in the name of all 
 the rest, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words 
 of eternal life." It is again a great pleasure to state, that in 
 this particular also ' the Government of Turkey has of late 
 years risen above old prejudices, and taken a decided step 
 towards Christian liberality, by proclaiming perfect liberty to 
 all their subjects to embrace and exercise whatever religion 
 they think best ; an enlightened course, deserving the commen- 
 dation not only of every Moslem, but of every man. 
 
 Now, as the mixture of religion and politics in Islamism 
 proves injurious both to Moslems and non-Moslems, so it is 
 also calculated, under certain circumstances, to impede its 
 own progress, or even to eiidanger its very existence. The 
 pages of history show, that as soon as Mohammed had entered 
 upon a career of conquests the number of his followers rapidly 
 increased : and after he had once been able to enrich them bv 
 the frequent distribution of valuable spoil, many instances 
 occurred of different Arabic tribes sending embassies to the 
 new Emir-Prophet, to declare their willing submission to him. 
 This rapid spread of Islam also continued during the reign of 
 the early Chalifs, whose armies conquered many countries in 
 quick succession ; and it has afterwards been renewed from 
 time to time, in various countries, under Moslem sovereigns, 
 who were more than usually powerful and victorious. It was 
 perfectly natural that such should be the effect; for as Mo- 
 hammedanism is not merely a religion, but at the same time 
 an earthly empire, the power and success of the latter ap- 
 peared to many as a proof of the truth of the former. On the 
 supposition that Islam is the last and highest stage in the develop- 
 ment of the kingdom of God, as yet granted to the ivorld, and 
 containing both a divinely-inspired religion and a divinely-in- 
 spired polity, it is unquestionably logical and consistent to ex- 
 pect that it should not only, as a religion, contain the sublimest 
 truth, but also, as a polity, secure the greatest amount of military 
 victories, temjjoral potver, a?id earthly prosp)erity. Therefore, 
 as long as the Mohammedan world was distinguished by its 
 victories and power, and enriched by the booty of other coun- 
 tries, it could hardly be otherwise than that every Mussulman 
 saw proof of the religious truth of Islam in this tangible sue- 
 
FOOD FOR EEFLECTION. '^ 77 
 
 cess of its worldly polity, which was an essential part of it. 
 But, assuming the legitimacy and fairness of this chain of 
 argument, does not its cogency and force continue when the 
 premises have become such as to lead to vin entirely opposite 
 conclusion ? If in times past the Moslems argued, '^ Our reli- 
 gion must be from God because we can see with our eyes that 
 our polity, which forms an inseparable part of it, answers so 
 well, and makes us more powerful than all the surrounding 
 nations," can they now consistently avoid arguing in a similar 
 manner, by saying, "How can we any longer put implicit 
 confidence in our religion, since it is a palpable fact that our 
 polity, which forms part of it, has so signally failed, that many 
 countries, once swayed by it, have passed into Christian hands ; 
 that more than thirty millions of Moslems have now to pay 
 tribute to Christian Governments ; and that Mohammedan 
 Turkey has found it absolutely necessary, in order to be able 
 to exist at all, to introduce important reforms in opposition to 
 the political principles of Islam ?" The inseparable connex- 
 ion between religion and politics in Islam naturally suggests 
 this mode of reasoning to every thoughtful Mohammedan, and 
 wlierever it is entered upon it cannot but lead to conclusions 
 inimical to the system of the Arabian Prophet, more especially 
 in those regions where the political power has entirely passed 
 from the Moslems into other hands. The grave facts which, 
 on the subject in question, present themselves to the reflection 
 of every Mussulman, are these — 'that Mohammedanism, on the 
 one hand, is by principle, and actually from its commencement, 
 not a mere religion, but a system into which religion and 
 politics, or things spiritual and temporal, are so closely united 
 and almost identified, that the failure of the one cannot but 
 shake confidence in the other ; whereas Christianity, on the 
 other hand, expressly declares, that its object in the present era 
 of the world is by no means to set up a visible earthly king- 
 dom, but simply to deliver man from the ruinous power of 
 sin and Satan, and to restore him to blessed communion with 
 God ; but that, notwithstanding all this, i. e. notwithstanding 
 that Islamism expressly aims at earthly dominion and the sub- 
 jugation of the non-Mohammedan nations, and notwithstand- 
 ing that Christianity is purely a religion, and for 300 years 
 
78 ^ FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 spread without any political power, amidst cruel persecutions, 
 God, in His all-wise providence, has yet so diminished the 
 worldly power of the Moslem nations, and so marvellously 
 increased the gcneL'al prosperity and political power of the 
 nations professing Christianity, that there are a number of 
 Christian lands, e.g. England, America, France, Prussia, 
 Austria, Italy, and Russia, each one of which is more civilized 
 more generally educated, and politically more powerful, than 
 the Osmanli empire, which, of all remaining Mohammedan 
 states, is, without contradiction, the most civilized, the best 
 educated, and the most powerful. 
 
 The facts referred to having shown that the politico-reli- 
 gious system of Islam, as compared with the pure religion of 
 Christianity, has proved a failure, so far as the Mohammedan 
 nations themselves and mankind in general are concerned, we 
 have now to draw attention to another point in which Mo- 
 hammedanism is likewise inferior to Christianity. The Go- 
 spel, as has been already noticed, shows us the kingdom of 
 God, or the true religion, in its most spiritual and universal 
 character, no less applicable to, than intended for, the whole 
 human race, and not encumbered by the trammels of any 
 particular nationality. But ivhat the Koran presents to us as 
 the highest and last stage of the kingdom of God in this ivorld 
 icears again an unmistakeable national character, and is 
 burdened with a load of external forms which must not only 
 retard its 'propagation^ hut actually prevent its establishment 
 over the entire globe. Having already had occasion to show 
 how the external forms of Islam deprive it of a truly universal 
 character^ or render it inapplicable to all the various nations 
 of the earth (see p. 66), we may here confine ourselves to two 
 points — the extensive introduction of the Arabic language 
 wherever Mohammedanism becomes the religion of a people, 
 and the injunction to take a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina 
 as a religious duty. 
 
 To begin with the latter, i. e. the Pilgrimage to Mecca^ it is 
 a fact known to every one acquainted with Arabic historj^, that 
 the Arabs observed this national custom for many centuries 
 before Mohammed. The different tribes had agreed, when 
 still given to idolatry, to assemble every year as one nation 
 
FOOD FOE REFLECTION. 
 
 before their national sanctuary at Mecca, during which time 
 all their feuds were suspended, and they could meet in bro- 
 therly concord as members of one great nation. No one can 
 deny, that from a national point of view this was a wise and 
 useful arrangement, the observance of which by a people of 
 more or less nomadic habits inv(5lved no very considerable 
 sacrifice. But when this institutio?i ivas also adoj)ted, though 
 ivith some modifications, into the religion of Mohammed^ claim- 
 ing a mission to all the nations of the earth, it became liable to 
 two serious objections. In the first place it must be readily 
 conceded, that whilst there was no insuperable obstacle in the 
 way of Arabs visiting Mecca, with their multitudes of camels 
 and horses, yet at present, since there are Mohammedans in 
 Turkey, Persia, Affghanistan, India, Algiers, Morocco, and 
 other remote parts of Africa, it cannot but be difficult for the 
 less wealthy, and almost impossible for the poor, to afford the 
 time and money required for so long a pilgrimage ; and if Islam 
 were to spread to still more distant lands, it would, in propor- 
 tion, become less possible for the inhabitants to fulfil this de- 
 mand of their faith, and reap the benefits held out by it. Where 
 then, in a religion claiming universality, is the wisdom of an 
 injunction, or the benefit of a promise which must remain 
 beyond the reach of a very large proportion of Mussulmans, 
 in spite of their most earnest desires ? In the second place? 
 this obligation on Moslems to visit Mecca and Medina once 
 at least in their life, shows that these are still to be recrarded 
 as the proper centre of the entire Mohammedan world, to 
 which they must turn in veneration, and from which they must 
 be more or less influenced, or, in other words, it indicates a 
 design and tendency in Islam to preserve as much as possible 
 its original Arabic character, in ivhatever country it may be 
 professed. There would be no harm in such a tendency if 
 Islam pretended only to be the religion of the Arabic tribes ; 
 but asserting a mission for all other nations as well, and yet 
 retaining the peculiar Arabic impress, it cannot fail to do great 
 violence to the other races over which it gains power. The 
 Arabic nationality being so prominently brouglit forward, the 
 others, equally God's creatures, must in proportion be under- 
 valued and slighted. To what extent this can be done can 
 
80 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 easily be seen from the existing state of things : e. g. althongli 
 Arabia, at the present moment, has not even poHtical indepen- 
 dence, but is subjected to the Osmanlis, yet these latter, being 
 INIohammedans, a}.;e enjoined by their religion to regard 
 Mecca and Medina as more sacred than their own capital 
 Stambul, and to take a long pilgrimage to Arabia, as if this 
 were more pleasing to God than if they remained in their own 
 native land to serve Him. How different Christianity in this 
 respect, having no provincial or local garb, but equally at 
 home in every town and country, in virtue of its own divine 
 and essentially spiritual character. 
 
 The other point above referred to as likewise showing how 
 little Islam was able to shake off the trammels of the nation- 
 ality amidst which it arose, and to adapt itself to the various 
 exigencies of mankind, is its servile dependence on the Arabic 
 language, which must to some extent be adopted by every 
 nation embracing Islam. To prove this, nothing more is 
 required than to examine the languages of Mohammedan 
 nations, e.r/. the Turkish, the Persian, and the Hindostani, 
 all of which had to accept more or less from the Arabic. But 
 the , chief ground upon which Mohammedanism must be 
 charged with tyranny over the languages of its non- Arabic 
 professors is this, that it requires them to read the Koran and 
 to perform the public services in the Arabic language only, 
 instead of using their own for that purpose. This tyrannous 
 practice unduly raises the language of the Arabs, and invests 
 it with an air of unique authority and sacredness, while de- 
 grading all others as unhallowed and profane. Arabic must 
 therefore be the language of theology and devotion wherever 
 the religion of Mohammed prevails. None can be a true disciple 
 who does not learn so much of it as to be able to join in the 
 public prayers, and none can read the book on which his 
 religion is based except through the same medium. Hence it 
 is patent to all, that, so far as language is concerned, Islam has 
 retained a mere national, i. e, an Arabic character, and that 
 consequently its spread involves to a great extent also that of 
 the Arabic language. Every one must perceive that this 
 cannot fail to act as a hindrance to the propagation of Islam 
 in a quiet and spontaneous way, and that it is a decided and 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. > 81 
 
 serious defect in a religion claiming a universal destiny. How 
 could it be expected, e.g.^ that the great nations who now 
 pray to God, and read His word, in English, German, French, 
 or Russian, should ever feel disposed to learn Arabic, in order 
 to do much more imperfectly, in a foreign language, that which 
 they can already do in their own ? Surely it must be easy 
 for every nation that has embraced the religion of Arabia to 
 find out, by actual experience, that the compulsory use of a 
 foreign language where their own vernacular might be em- 
 ployed, is a hindrance and not a help to devotion and growth 
 in religious knowledge. To take one instance only : how 
 many thousand Osmanlis are there not the least understanding 
 the Arabic prayers which they have to repeat, or the Surahs 
 read to them from an Arabic Koran ? and how many more 
 thousands there are who understand them only imperfectly, 
 and could derive much more benefit from them if they mio-ht 
 repeat them in Turkish ? No thinking man can hesitate to 
 pronounce it more useful and natural for a nation to pray to 
 God and read His word in its own language, that everybody 
 understands, than in one which few understand well, many 
 only imperfectly, and the vast majority not at all. Nor can it 
 be less easy for any one to decide which is most suitable to 
 become the universal religion — Christianity, with its Gospel 
 already translated and circulating in several hundred lan- 
 guages ; or Islam, with its Koran in the one language of the 
 Arabs? Which must appear to the judgment of every thouo-ht- 
 ful man to be most in accordance with the benignity and wis- 
 dom of God, to send the Gospel of man's salvation to every 
 nation in their own tongue, or to send them an Arabic Koran, 
 which no one can understand out of Arabia, without first 
 spending years in its study ? Can any one suppose that the 
 time will come when all the nations — we will not say of the 
 whole world,jbut merely of Europe — will learn so much Arabic 
 that they may perform their prayers and read the Koran in 
 that language? Surely no man, and no Mussulman, who 
 knows the world, will believe this, unless, perhaps, some whose 
 veneration for the Arabic leads them even to believe that 
 " no doubt Arabic is the language of heaven." The con- 
 
 G 
 
82 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 elusion, therefore, at which a reflecting and sincere Moham- 
 medan must arrive, when comparing the national Arabic cha- 
 racter of Islam with the spiritual and universal nature of 
 Christianity, can" hardly fail to be any other than this, that 
 the former^ instead of being a higher development of the true 
 religion, falls far short of the loftij, spiritual, and universal 
 adaptation of the latter, 
 
 4. Retaliation. 
 
 We have akeady remarked (p. 22) how far the Gospel 
 advances beyond the Law in its requirement of a spirit of love, 
 forbearance, and forgiveness in the private conduct of indi- 
 viduals. As it is impossible to conceive nobler and more 
 spiritual principles of action between man and man, we cannot 
 but wonder that Islam, instead of presenting a higher standard 
 in this particular than Christianity, falls back to the level — 
 we will not say, of the Mosaic law — but of that law as misunder- 
 stood by the Jews. The retention and' sanctioji by Mohammed of 
 the right of p7'ivate revenge appears from the following passages 
 of the Koran — " Whosoever shall be slain wrongfully, to his 
 heir have we given powers ; but let him not outstep bounds in 
 putting the man-slayer to death, for he too, in his turn, will be 
 assisted and avenged." (Surah xvii. 35.) And again, "O 
 believers, retaliation for blood-shedding is prescribed to you : 
 the free man for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the 
 woman for the woman ; but he to whom his brother shall 
 make any remission is to be dealt with equitably, and to him 
 should he pay a fine with liberality." (Surah ii. 173.) And it 
 is to be observed that the Koran has not, like the Thorah, taken 
 sufficient steps to check the abuse to which such an enactment is 
 plainly liable. Many Moslem tribes think themselves entitled 
 by the Koran not merely to punish an actual murderer, but 
 also to exact vengeance on any member of his family or tribe, 
 so that, in the name of their religion, they slay the innocent for 
 the guilty. Against such an abuse of the law of retaliation 
 the Thorah had expressly guarded, by enjoining, in Deut. 
 xxiv. 16 — " The fathers shall not be put to death for the 
 children, neither shall the children be put to death for the 
 fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin." 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION 83 
 
 Besides retaliation in case of murder, the Koran seems also to 
 approve of private revenge for any minor injuries, in the 
 following passage — " And whoever, in making exact reprisal 
 for injury done him, shall again be w!'onged, God will 
 assuredly aid him." (Surah xxii. 59.) Such teaching cannot 
 but foster a harsh and vindictive spirit towards one another, 
 instead of that noble spirit of kindly forbearance and love 
 recommended in the Gospel. Whilst, therefore, in regard to 
 the duty we ow^e our fellow-men, the Gospel is characterized 
 by pure love, and the Thorah by strict justice, the Koran 
 seems to expose itself in some measure to the charge of in- 
 justice and cruelty. This appears to be felt, and tacitly 
 admitted, by Moslems themselves ; for even professedly 
 Mohammedan Governments, such, e.g., as that of the Osmanlis, 
 do not think of carrying out such cruel laws as those pre- 
 scribed in the following verses of the Koran — " The recom- 
 pense of those wdio war against God and His apostle, and go 
 about to commit disorders on the earth, shall be, that they shall 
 be slain, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on 
 opposite sides, or be banished the land." (Surah v. 39.) 
 And again — " As for the thief, whether man or woman, 
 cut ye off their hands in recompense for their doing." 
 (Surah V. 42.) 
 
 5. Slavery. 
 
 We have seen above (p. 23) that the Old Testament 
 tolerated and recognised slavery, although it considerably 
 mitigated its hardships, and placed the slaves under the pro- 
 tection of the public laws, whilst we found the whole spirit 
 and tendencies of Christianity to be opposed to it, and calcu- 
 lated, wherever it can exercise its legitimate influence, to 
 bring. about its entire abolition. Here, therefore, we have to 
 ask the question, " Does Islam assume a diviner, i.e. more 
 generous and benevolent aspect as regards that most degraded 
 class of men, the slaves, than Christianity?" History answers 
 " No," emphatically ; on the contrary, it is a fact that to this 
 moment slavery remains undisturbed in every country under 
 Mohammedan rule, Moslems buying and selling not only non- 
 Moslems, hut even their brethren in the faith, especially the 
 
 g2 
 
84 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 Negroes, as they buy and sell cattle; and that never yet has 
 the religion of the Koran 'produced in any place an amount of 
 •philanthropy and generosity sufficient to effect the general 
 emancipation of slaves, whilst in none of the great empires 
 of Christian Europe is domestic slavery tolerated, or would 
 the public spirit suffer human beings to be sold like brutes ; 
 and throughout the vast dominions of England, comprising 
 about one-fifth of the human race, a law is in force, that, as 
 soon as any slave sets his foot on English ground, that moment 
 he becomes a free man. So different has been the respective 
 influence of Mohammedanism and Christianity in regard to 
 slavery ; and all this is the natural fruit of the principles and 
 tendencies they respectively bring to bear on social relations 
 in general. It is true the Koran contains some passages 
 similar to those found in the Old Testament, in which huma- 
 nity and even liberality towards slaves are recommended ; but 
 even in this respect there are one or two particulars which 
 stamp the teaching of the Koran as inferior even to that of the 
 Thorah. The Koran expressly leaves the virtue of all female 
 slaves, even of tJte married ones, to the mercij of their master, 
 whilst the Thorah gives no such license. It cannot but be 
 regarded as a great hardship and cruelty to the female slaves 
 to declare them unprotected in what every right-minded 
 woman prizes most, her feminine virtue. That this is done 
 by the Koran will be seen from the following questions, " The 
 believers are continent, except as regards their wives, or the 
 slaves whom their right-hands possess ; for in respect of 
 them they shall be blameless." (Surah Ixx. 29, 30.) Again, 
 " Forbidden to you are married women, except those who are 
 in your hands as slaves." (Surah iv. 28.) So likewise, whilst 
 it was ordered in the Thorah that every Hebrew slave should 
 only have to serve his master six years, and in the seventh be 
 suffered to go away free {see Exod. xxi. 2) ; and whilst it was 
 further provided that any master who killed his slave w^as to 
 be *' surely punished" (Exod. xxi. 20) ; and if he inflicted any 
 bodily injury upon any of them, he was bound to gi^ e them 
 their liberty in return (Exod. xxi. 26, 27) ; there is no such 
 safeguard found in the Koran] and the result is, that masters 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 85 
 
 can exercise cruelties towards tlieir slaves in Mohammedan 
 countries for •which they would have been punished by the 
 law of Moses. It, then, is a fact beyond contradiction, that 
 slaves are less protected by the Koranic than the Mosaic code ; 
 it is a fact that slavery still exists all over the Mohammedan 
 ivorld, and that in no single Moslem country has it ever 
 been abolished ; and it is a fact that in the ivhole of Christian 
 Europe slavery is only known as a thing of the past^ and 
 that every living man is free, whilst Christian England^ 
 actuated by the spirit of the Gospel, has conferred the blessing 
 of liberty upon all the millions formerly kept in bondage 
 throughout her immense possessions in every part of the 
 world. Hence every man of common sense must perceive 
 that, with regard to slaves and slavery, Islam, so far from 
 being more just, humane, and merciful than Christianity, 
 is quite the reverse, not even reaching the Mosaic 
 standard. 
 
 6. Polygamy and Divorce. 
 
 This is the last point of comparison between the teaching 
 of the Old and New Testament which we have considered 
 above (see p. 24), and in which we have found the latter 
 superior to the former ; for whilst the law of Moses did not 
 forbid polygamy by any legal enactment, and expressly tolerated 
 divorce, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is directly opposed to both 
 divorce and polygamy, and emancipates the woman in general 
 from those restrictions which are inimical to her position as a 
 free-born child of God. Here it is our duty to examine the 
 question whether, in this respect, Islam proceeds still farther 
 in the course marked out by the Gospel, as it ought to do, if 
 it were a still higher revelation, or whether it disappoints 
 such expectations. 
 
 As regards Polygamy, the Koran, instead of disavowing it 
 still more strongly than Christianity, stops short even of the 
 indirect disapproval of it which we find in the Law of 3foses, 
 and completely departs, on this point, from all the previous 
 teaching of revealed religion, by expressly sanctioning it ; for 
 we read in Surah iv. 3 — " And if ye fear lest ye should deal 
 unfairly with orphans, then marry of other women who please 
 you, two, or three, or four ; and if ye fear lest you should act 
 equitably, then one, or the slaves whom ye have acquired.'' 
 
86 FOOD FOR REFLECTION 
 
 WJiilc thus every Moslem, who is so disposed and has the 
 means, may lawfully marry as many as four wives at a time, 
 and may, besides, cohabit with as many female slaves as he 
 chooses, without marrying themj Mohammed was not satis- 
 fied for his own person with even so great a license, but took 
 to himself more than ten wives, besides the slaves ; and his 
 doinoc so is expressly sanctioned in the Koran, as one of the 
 special prerogatives of the prophet, in these words — " O pro- 
 phet, we allow thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and 
 the slaves whom thy right-hand possesses out of the booty 
 which God has granted thee, and the daughters of thy uncle 
 and of thy paternal and maternal aunts who fled with thee (to 
 Medina}, and any believing woman who has given herself up 
 to the prophet, if the prophet desired to wed her; a privi- 
 lege far the above the rest of the faithful." (Surah xxxiii. 49.) 
 Such being the teaching of the Koran, and the practice of the 
 Arabian prophet, we cannot w^onder that to the present day 
 polygamy is considered as a lawful institution in all Moham- 
 medan countries, indulged in by Moslems who do not mind 
 the domestic inconveniences and expense it entails ; and that 
 female slavery is continued, not only for the sake of labour, 
 but also for the gratification of the carnal lusts of masters. 
 But such a state cannot be pleasing in the sight of a just and 
 holy God ; for it is destructive of true, divinely-appointed 
 matrimony, and can only exist where w^oman is regarded not 
 as God has intended her, viz. man's rational companion, a 
 help meet for him, but only as an inferior minister to his 
 carnal desires. Polygamy is incom'paiihJe tcith true marriage, 
 inasmuch as it frustrates one of the chief objects for wdiich 
 God has instituted it, by preventing perfect union between 
 husband and wife, and rendering healthy family-life im- 
 possible. The normal idea of matrimony supposes a perfect 
 union, in which husband and wife mutually live for each other : 
 but if a man has several wives, all of whom have to regard him 
 as their only husband, and to bear him unswerving fealty, 
 how can he reciprocate this devotion, seeing that he cannot 
 belono- wholly to more than one? In polygamy there caimot 
 be a perfect matrimonial alliance, or an equal surrender of 
 husband and wife to one another ; for whilst each wife is ex- 
 pected to devote herself wholly to the husband, the husband, 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION-. 87 
 
 being only one, cannot give himself wholly to each one of 
 several wives^ and consequently he is not a true and real 
 husband to any of them. The union between husband and 
 Avife being thus incomplete, how could we expect it to pro- 
 duce a united and healthy family ^^fi^ The Jiouse of a man 
 living in polygamy cannot form one united family at all, hut 
 as many defective families as there are tvives. Each wife of 
 a polygamist, with her children, has her own separate family 
 interests, differing from those of her husband, and those of 
 every one of his other wives. Hence the common experience, 
 to which even tbe harem of the Arabian prophet itself proved 
 no exception (see Surah Ixvi. 1 — 5), that wherever there is 
 more than one wife, there must also be endless feuds and 
 jealousies. It is therefore not surprising, that, in spite of the 
 sanction of their religion, comparatively few of the richer 
 Moslems, especially in Turkey, indulge in marrying more 
 than one wife, and the poor very rarely ;] a fact which clearly 
 proves that polygamy is an unnatural institution, unsuited to 
 the actual circumstances of human society. Nor can it be 
 denied that it is degrading to the female sex ; for it rests upon 
 the admission that one woman is inadequate to the duty and 
 dignity of conjugal companionship, and that a man consults 
 his happiness more by having two, three, or four wives. There 
 can be little doubt, that if women in Mohammedan countries 
 were more enlightened and educated, they would scorn to 
 accept so degrading a position. It is undeniable that Islam, 
 in sanctioning polygamy, departed at once from the practice of 
 the Christian world during the previous 600 years, and the 
 normal law of the divine Creator ; for nothing is more 
 clearly established by the statistical science of modern times 
 than that the primal law of the Creator, ordaining one woman 
 for one man, remains unaltered ; since it is found all over the 
 world that the proportion of male and female births is still 
 about equal. It is evident, then, that no provision has been 
 made by the God of nature for Mohammed's plurality of wives, 
 and that his precepts and practice on this head are in direct 
 antao-onism to natural and revealed law. Hence it follows as 
 a general result, in ordinary circumstances, that wdicre one 
 Mohammedan has two, three or four wives, there must be v 
 
88 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 corresponding number of others who cannot marry at all. 
 Defenders of Ishimism miglit perliaps assert that the exigency 
 of the case was met by the many victories God had given 
 them over other nations. But in reply to this it must be 
 observed that it does not follow from God's permitting the 
 Moslems to conquer foreign nations, that He did so in order 
 to enable them to fill their harems with female captives. 
 Besides, although it is quite true that, in times past, hundreds 
 of thousands of poor women have been carried into captivity, 
 to become the slaves or wives of their Moslem conquerors, yet 
 it is no less an undeniable fact, that the laws of God in history 
 have so operated, that it has ?20W become an impossibility for 
 Afoslem armies to capture and bring home thousands of un- 
 fortunate young creatures from co7U}uered non- Mohammedan 
 countries. This change in the political state of the world 
 which Providence has brouoht about, shows as little inten- 
 tion in history as in nature to provide the Mohammedans Avith 
 the number of wives allowed them by their religion. It may 
 therefore be regarded as demonstrated by unquestionable facts 
 that the manifest will of God and the Mohammedan laws are 
 diametrically opposed to one another, as regards polygamy. 
 
 Divorce which, as we have already seen (p. 25), was only 
 tolerated by the Law of Moses, and positively prohibited by 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is expressly sanctioned by the 
 Koran of Mohammed. The title of the 65th Surah is " Di- 
 vorce," as treating largely on this subject. There we read, 
 " O prophet, when ye divorce women, divorce them at their 
 special times ; and reckon those times exactly, and fear God 
 your Lord. As to such of your wives who have no hope of 
 the recurrence of their times, if ye have doubts in regard to 
 them, then reckon three months, and let the same be the term 
 of those who have not yet had them. And as to those who are 
 with child, their period shall be until they are delivered of 
 their burden. God will make His command easy to him who 
 feareth Him." Li another Surah we find the following decla- 
 ration — " Ye may divorce your wives twice. Keep them 
 honourably, or put them away with kindness. But it is not 
 allowed you to appropriate to yourselves aught of what ye have 
 given to them, unless both fear that they cannot keep within 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTIOX. 89 
 
 the bounds set up bj God. And if ye fear that they cannot 
 observe the ordinances of God, no blame shall attach to either 
 of you for what the wife shall herself give for her redemption. 
 And when ye divorce your wives, and have waited the pre- 
 scribed time, hinder them not from marrying their husbands, 
 when they have agreed among themselves in an honourable 
 way. This warning is for him among you who believeth in 
 God and in the last day. This is most pure for you and most 
 decent. God knoweth, but ye know not." (Surah ii. 229. 232.) 
 We shall quote one more verse from the Koran on this sub- 
 ject, viz. Surah iv. 24 — ^' If ye be desirous to exchange one 
 wife for another, and have given the one a talent, make no de- 
 duction from it." These quotations establish it beyond a doubt 
 that the Koran legalizes divorce, and the re-marrying of the 
 divorced, and that no weightier reason is required from a man 
 who wants to divorce his ivife than his mere wish to do so, the 
 ivife herself having no right secured her than that of claiming 
 the sum of money settled upon her by her husband at the time 
 of marrying. If we compare with this unlimited licence 
 granted by the Koran the peremptory prohibition of divorce 
 conveyed in the word of the Lord Jesus, " What God hath 
 joined together let not man put asunder" (Matt. xix. 6.), then 
 we cannot for a moment remain doubtful as to the fact whether 
 the Koran is a confirmation and higher development of the 
 doctrines of the Gospel in this respect, or whether the teaching 
 of the Arabian prophet is diametrically opposed to the decla- 
 ration of the Messiah. One thing is certain, that God or- 
 dained matrimony as early as He created the first human 
 conple, but that He gave them not the slightest intimation 
 that they were at liberty to tear asunder that conjugal tie 
 with wdiich He had united them ; and another thing is no less 
 certain, namely, that, 4000 years afterwards, the Lord Jesus, 
 whom every orthodox Mussulman regards as a true prophet 
 sent by God, expressly forbade the dissolution of the marriage 
 tie by man himself: but if, 690 years later, another law is pro- 
 pagated, giving every married man full liberty to divorce his 
 w^Ife for any reason he pleases, and to repeat such divorce as 
 often as he chooses, so that cases become possible, as are known 
 to have actually happened amongst the Moslems, of men sue- 
 
90 FOOD FOR REFLECT! OX. 
 
 cessivcly marrying and divorcing twenty, thirty, or more 
 wives, then the question naturally suggests itself to every 
 reflecting mind, "Can such a law likewise have emanated 
 from the unchangeable God ?" 
 
 It cannot be denied, that, in consequence of the legitimate 
 character with which their law invests divorce, and the great 
 facility it provides for effecting it, divorces have become of 
 amazing frequency among the Moliammedans, incomparably 
 more so than the practice of polygamy ; and the evils insepa- 
 rable from them must therefore have a most baneful effect 
 upon Moslem society. Every one living in a Mohammedan 
 country, especially in large cities, has abundant opportunity 
 to observe how frequently divorce is the source of cruel injus- 
 tice, and extreme distress to the divorced woman. To mention 
 only one case out of a great many. The writer of this knows 
 a Moslem in his neighbourhood wlio had been married to a 
 woman for thirty years, and had two grown-up sons by her, 
 when he began to dislike her, and to wish for a younger wife. He 
 therefore divorced her, and married a girl younger than his eldest 
 son. He being in Government service, and having a handsome 
 salary, his wife had been used to all the comforts of life. But 
 the small sum of money she received at her divorce was soon 
 expended, and as she was too old to find another husband, and 
 had no relatives to take her in, she was reduced to the most 
 abject poverty and distress, often having nothing to eat to 
 satisfy her hunger. Cases of similar hardship, resulting from 
 heartless divorce, are so common, that probably every Moslem 
 reader will remember some from among his own aquaintances 
 or his own neighbourhood. It is not a rare thing that such 
 poor divorced women give themselves up to a life of sin and 
 profligacy in order to avoid starvation. On the other hand, 
 unprincipled men are enabled by this facility of divorce to in- 
 dulge their illicit appetite to an almost unlimited extent. Not 
 lono* ago a Turk was pointed out to me who looked about fifty 
 years old only, and yet I was assured by a learned Imam that 
 this man had already divorced seventy wives, and was just 
 then living with two ncAvly-married ones ; so that if he married 
 the first time in his twentieth year, he must have divorced 
 at the rate of more than two wives annually for thirty sue- 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 91 
 
 cessive years. How much soever conduct like this may have 
 the form of legitimacy, according to Mohammedan law, yet 
 before a holy God, and even in the eyes of every strictly moral 
 man, it must appear as a life of fornication and sin. 
 
 Apart from such cases of extraordinary distress, or legalized 
 excess ''of sensuality, resulting from the existing laws of Islam 
 respecting divorce, the ivhole married state, and society in gene- 
 ral, cannot fail to he most injuriously and hanefidly affected. 
 Every Mohammedan who marries does so with the knowledge 
 that at any time he pleases, he can again dissolve that matri- 
 monial tie, without having to dread any check whatever from 
 law, provided he be prepared to pay the sum of money settled 
 upon his wife at the time of marrying. And every woman 
 marrying a Moslem is aware, that if, at any time, she ceases to 
 please her husband, or he would be better pleased with another, 
 he has the legal right to put her aw^ay, and take some one else 
 in stead. This state of things deprives matrimony at the out- 
 set of the importance and solemnity it has ivith those ivho know 
 that they unite for ?io less a term than life. To the Moham- 
 medan it is not so, but merely a union for as long or as short 
 a time as he himself pleases ; and its dissolution is for him not 
 a matter of conscience and morality, but simply a question of 
 money and convenience. This must be productive of evil in 
 a variety of ways. It is sure to destroy the unity of aim and 
 interest ivhich ought to characterize husband and tvife, as 
 the heads of a family ; for the wife having cause to dread, 
 from the commencement, that at some future time her 
 husband may take it into his head, in some evil hour, to 
 divorce her, her aim will naturally be, instead of devoting 
 herself to promote the general prosperity of the family, 
 to secure for herself a separate portion, at the expense 
 of her husband, so that, in case of divorce, she may not 
 be destitute. The husband, knowing this, will probably be 
 disposed to withhold from her that confidence and that share 
 in the management of the household which he would gladly 
 accord if he were sure that she had no interests apart from his 
 own. It is not uncommon to hear a Mohammedan ascribe 
 want of success in advancing the interests of his family to the 
 circumstance that his wife, instead of seconding his endea- 
 
92 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 vours, only seeks to obtain as mnch of his income as she can 
 for herself and her relatives. Wherever such is .the case, there 
 is an end of a family union and healthy family life. 
 
 The laws and practice in question also exercise an injurious 
 influence on the welfare of children. The mother is greatly 
 tempted to spoil them by over-indulgence, from a mistaken 
 hope of thus gaining and securing their affections so effec- 
 tually as to retain them even in case of separation by divorce. 
 The father likewise inflicts a cruel wrong upon his own chil- 
 dren by divorcing their mother. For as thenceforth he is not 
 only indifferent, but hostile to her, and she can no longer visit 
 his house, his children are deprived of their mother almost as 
 entirely as if she were dead. They may indeed, now and then, 
 find an opportunity of visiting her, but in most cases this is 
 not approved of, perhaps even prohibited by the father, and 
 the whole spirit of his house tends to alienate them from her 
 who gave them birth. Thus the practice of divorce, where 
 there are children, strongly tends to deaden the tenderest 
 feelings and strongest instincts that God has implanted in 
 the human heart, namely, those that form the maternal and 
 filial bond. 
 
 Another evil result of the unlimited authorization of divorce 
 is the strong grouiid thus ix^ovdi^A for feelings of jealousy be- 
 tween the married parties, and the moral impossibility of the 
 natural and free intercourse betiveen the two sexes, which 
 proves such an advantage to society in general where Christian 
 principles prevail. Whilst in well-regulated Clu'istian society 
 husband and wife are perfectly sure of one another, from the 
 fact that, so long as there is no criminal cause, divorce is an 
 impossibility, married Mohammedans, especially the wives, 
 must be greatly susceptible of jealous surmisings, or dis- 
 quieting apprehensions, because they are never sure whether 
 the slightest real or imagined coolness in conjugal affections, 
 or any other incidental occurrence, may not be the first 
 symptom of an impending divorce. Among Christians every 
 married man knows that he can neither add a wife to the one 
 he has, nor exchange her for another, as the Moslems can ; 
 and therefore his relation to the female sex in general assumes 
 much of the purity and sacredness of the relationship between 
 
FOOD BXDR REFLECTION. 93 
 
 brothers and sisters, so that he can have social intercourse 
 with woman-l^ind in general, and benefit by their keener 
 observation, their kindlier sympathy, their more refined man- 
 ners and tastes, with almost the same propriety and freedom 
 he enjoys in conversing with his sisters or with individuals of 
 his own sex. Every married Mohammedan, on the other 
 hand, knows that the fact of his having a wife by no means 
 precludes the possibility of his courting and marrying another, 
 either in addition to the one he has, or after having sent her 
 away. Every Moslem is also aware that the fact of a woman 
 being married does not absolutely prevent her from becoming 
 his wife ; for it is possible that he may induce her husband, 
 either by bribery or intimidation, to divorce her; or the 
 married woman herself, if bent on getting free from her hus- 
 band, may so annoy and irritate him as to bring about a 
 divorce, enabling her to become another man's wife. As every 
 Mohammedan husband and wife are led by their religion to 
 look upon the tie of matrimony as not binding till death, but 
 merely till it is found convenient and pleasant to dissolve it, 
 the fact of being married does not debar a Mussulman from 
 seeking another wife, perhaps even amongst those who are 
 already provided with a husband, but who may be rendered 
 eligible by means of divorce ; nor does it prevent a Moslem 
 woman from seeking to win the aft'ections of another man, in 
 the hope that a divorce may enable her to become his wife, 
 Ihe consequence of this is, that in order to save matrimonv 
 from becoming practically altogether useless, and sinking down 
 to the level of lawless concubinage, the custom has become 
 necessary among the Mohammedans of most rigidly separating 
 even the married portion of the two sexes, and completely 
 preventing any friendly intercourse between them, so that 
 general society has altogether ceased to consist of men and 
 women, as God originally designed it, and as it still is among 
 Christians, and has been reduced to a company of men only, 
 whilst the poor women are kept shut up in harems, and not 
 permitted to appear out of doors without carefully hiding their 
 faces. This unnatural exclusion of the female sex from 
 society, rendered necessary by the unlimited license of divorce, 
 cannot but prove a great evil, inasmuch as it deprives the 
 
94 • FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 society of men not only of a Iiiglily agreeable, but also of a 
 most refiniiio; element, and inasmuch as it confines one half, 
 and this the more sociable half, of mankind to the bleak 
 monotony of hareiti-life, cruelly debarring them from the loftier 
 sphere, the wider horizon, and the more intellectual tone of the 
 society of men. By stopping the excessive facility of divorce, 
 the unsightly and ghastly covering of the face could be safely 
 dispensed with, and woman-kind restored to society, both to 
 their own inestimable benefit, and that of the stronger 
 sex. 
 
 It may also be worth mentioning that, as an indirect 
 result of the facility of divorce, and of the complete sepa- 
 ration of the sexes, the strange custom has become uiiiver- 
 sally 'prevalent^ that 'parties entering on the married state 
 are not allowed to liave any 'personal or friendly inter- 
 course, hut must indi^iidually remain strangers to each other 
 up to the day of marriage. The only way in wdiich they 
 can hear or know any thing of each other before marriage, 
 is through the medium of near relatives and friends. It is 
 therefore impossible to judge for themselves whether their 
 characters and tempers, their habits and tastes, their principles 
 and views of life, or even their personal appearance, are likely 
 to coalesce and prove mutually agreeable. Whilst no man 
 willingly buys a house or horse, without first seeing them for 
 himself, and no woman thinks of purchasing an article of 
 dress or ornament, without first looking at it, yet so great is 
 the tyranny of Mohammedan custom as to require that two 
 persons going to marry shall have no acquaintance with each 
 other, but that in this most iveighty matter they shall depend 
 solely on the information and judgment of others. It cannot 
 be w^ondered at, therefore, that cases are not rare in which 
 two persons, utterly unacquahited w^ith each other, join in 
 marriage but find out directly afterAvards that their cha- 
 racters, tastes and views of life are so uncongenial, or even 
 the personal appearance is so diflPerent from what had been 
 expected, that a dissolution of the marriage union is sought 
 almost from the very day they have come together. It is even 
 said, that sometimes, especially in large towns, unprincipled 
 girls induce men to marry them, simply for the sake of the 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. ^ 95 
 
 sum of money to be settled upon tlicm in the marriage-con- 
 tract, and with the intention, from the very first, of so annoy- 
 inp' and troubiino; their husband as to force him to divorce 
 them. Thus v^^e see that the excessive •facihty of divorce 
 leads to levity in marrying ; and marrying without that mutual 
 esteem and love which can flow onlv from knowledo-e and 
 sympathy, leads again to a deplorable increase of divorces. 
 Every one must acknowledge that such a state of things can- 
 not but act most injuriously on society in general, and the 
 well-being of individuals in particular. 
 
 It is now abundantly evident that the Koran, instead of 
 further developing the true religion in regard to matrimony 
 and divorce, stops even far short of the teaching of the 
 Gospel and the Mosaic law on the subject. But there is one 
 enactment in the Koranic laAv which must still be mentioned 
 as a most strikino- illustration of its retrograde and dete- 
 rioratino' character. Whilst in the law of Moses it is ex- 
 pressly forbidden for a man wdio has once divorced his wife 
 to take her back again, under any circumstance, the Koran 
 allows him to do so, not only after a first, but also after a 
 second, and, on a most singular condition, even after a third 
 divorce. In the second Surah (verse 230) w^e read, " But if 
 the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful for him 
 to take her again, until she shall have married another hus- 
 band ; and if he also divorce her, then shall no blame attach 
 to them if they return to each other, thinking that they can 
 keep within the bounds fixed by God : He maketh them clear 
 to those who have knowledge." Upon this verse a Moham- 
 medan custom is founded altogether opposed to the chaste spirit 
 of both the Old and Neiv Testame7it, and ivhich cannot he pro- 
 nounced otherwise than revolting to every feeling of common 
 delicacy. It consists in this, that if a man, after having thrice 
 divorced his wife, wishes to take her back again, he can only 
 do so by first marrying her to what is called a Mustnhil, i. e. 
 a man generally of the lowest character, coarsest manners, 
 and most forbidding appearance, hired for the purpose of 
 going through the marriage-ceremony with the ivoman, living 
 with her as her husband for one nighty and divorcing her again 
 
96 • FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 the next day. Whatever the original end of so odious an 
 enactment may have been, it cannot be justified from any 
 possible point of view, and is doubtless considered by every 
 sober judge as botii a most flagrant profanation of the sacred 
 rite of marriage, and a degrading cruelty to the woman, who 
 may possibly be quite innocent, and owe her repeated divorce 
 solely to the angry passion of her husband. 
 
 The disahilitij and ignominy of tcoman's j^osition under 
 Islam has nothing accidental in it, hut is founded on the 
 doctrine openly propounded in the Koran, of an essential in- 
 feriority of icoman to man. It is thus expressed in Surah iv. 
 3g — « Men are superior to women on account of the qualides 
 with which God has gifted the one above the other, and on 
 account of the outlay they make of- their substance for them. 
 Virtuous women are obedient, careful during the husband's 
 absence, because God has of them been careful. But chide 
 those for whose refractoriness ye have cause to fear ; remove 
 them into beds apart, and scourge them: but if they are 
 obedient to you, then seek not occasion against them : verily 
 God is high and great." The subordinate and degrade 
 ing position of woman in Mohammedan society is therefore 
 a natural and inevitable deduction from the Koran. We 
 have already referred to the fact, that, according to the same 
 authority, two^ three, or even four wives go to form the conjugal 
 equivalent of one husband; and also to the other that it leaves 
 the power of divorce entirely to the will or ivhim of the husband, 
 independent of the consent of the wife, and even irrespective 
 of any misconduct on her part, whilst no corresponding right 
 is conceded to her of similarly claiming a divorce. We have 
 also had occasion to notice the rigid exclusion of the female 
 element from geiieral society, as if not good enough for it, an 
 exclusion carried to such an extent as to forbid women to 
 appear in public, unless with their faces carefully concealed, 
 and to shut them up so completely, even in their own houses, 
 in secluded apartments called " the haremi'' that if a Moham- 
 medan gentleman is visited in his house, it looks as if he 
 and his sons were its only occupants, his wife or wives and 
 daughters being hidden away all the while, as if he were 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION, ' 97 
 
 ashamed of letting them be seen ; and it would actually amount 
 to a breach of etiquette to ask after his wife. It may farther 
 be mentioned in illustration of the inferior position the law of 
 the Arabian prophet assigns to woman thai, on the death of 
 parents, a daughter inherits only half a son's portion {see 
 Surah iv. 12) ; and such a difference being expressly 
 sanctioned by their law, it cannot be surprising that, though 
 the education of the boys is neither as general nor as thorough 
 as would be desirable, yet that of the girls is most sadly and 
 most generally neglected. Even with wives of Pashas, or other 
 high dignitaries, it is by no means a matter of course that 
 they can read or write. Most of those who can boast of 
 some education are limited in their literary acquirements to 
 the mechanical reading of the Koran, and a very few specially 
 favoured ones in great cities may, perhaps, add to this the 
 ne plus ultra of some music and a little French or English. 
 Now if mothers have no thorough education themselves, how 
 can they be expected to lay a solid foundation for that of 
 their children; and if women are kept back from the path 
 of knowledge and science, how can they rise above that state 
 of ignorance and tutelage in which they now are ? Even in 
 public attendance on religious duties and in regard to the 
 promised enjoyments of the next worldy the poor female sex 
 must rest content with an inferior position. It is a fact 
 known to every one acquainted with the religious customs of 
 the Mohammedans, that in most of their mosques the assembly 
 of worshippers consists ordinarily of men only, the women 
 either neglecting the prescribed forms of prayer altogether, 
 or performing them privately in their own houses ; and that 
 even in those mosques where it is customary for women to 
 worship, they are not allowed to do so in the large central 
 space, but are compelled to meet by themselves in side- 
 galleries, where they cannot be seen. This rigid seclusion of 
 women from men, even in public places of worship, appears 
 all the more strange, since, according to the statements of the 
 Koran itself, wives will be permitted in the world to come to 
 enter even Paradise with their husbands. {See Surahs xiii. 23 ; 
 xxvi. ^^ ; xl. 8 ; xliii. 70.) It is true, we must be careful 
 not to infer too much from this latter concession ; for in spite 
 
 H 
 
93 ^ FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 of it the Koran remains far from admitting that their assumed 
 inferiority to men will disappear even there. On the con- 
 trary, it promises rewards and enjoyments to the male sex, 
 {see, e. ij., Suralis- Ivi. 23, 24 ; Iv. 5Q, 10—1^), for which 
 women will search in vain in the same book with regard to 
 
 their own sex. 
 
 After all this, w^e can hardly wonder that men should be 
 admirers of a religion which gives them so great a superiority 
 over the other sex, extending even to the future world ; but 
 if ivomen could be found who were Moslems by choice, and 
 not from the mere force of circumstances, this would be 
 strange indeed, and could only be accounted for on the ground 
 that their want of education must prevent them from duly 
 reflecting upon, and fully realizing, the degradation to which 
 they are reduced by Islam, both in the life which now is, and 
 in that which is to come. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We have now done with our subject, so far as it was in- 
 tended to be discussed on the present occasion. Adopting 
 the statements of both Mohammedan and Christian theologians 
 that God did not reveal His true and saving religion at once, 
 hut gradually and at long intervals of time, we applied this 
 principle to the three widely-spread monotheistic religions — 
 Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism* The professed 
 believers of these three religions all agree in this, that Judaism, 
 or the religion communicated to Moses, and other Israelitish 
 prophets after him, was revealed by God, and consequently 
 was a true religion. Hence it was not thought necessary to 
 adduce proofs in support of the true religion in its Jewish 
 or Israelitish form. But after God had ceased for several 
 hundred years to send prophets to the Jews, a new religion 
 
 * It must be remembered that we do not affirm modern Judaism 
 to be the same as the religion that was communicated to Moses. 
 It claims to be the same, but most, if not all, Christians deny the 
 truth of the claim. 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. * 99 
 
 sprung up in Judca, claiming to be the higher development 
 or fulfilment of Judaism, or the true religion in its highest 
 form, and in the absolute sense. That this new religion, i e. 
 Christianity, was likewise a genuine reveMion from God, and 
 ranked higher than Judaism, upon this both Mohammedans 
 and Christians also essentially agree, while the Jews deny it. 
 On this latter account we found it necessary to show what 
 strong reasons the Mohammedans and Christians have for 
 believing that Christianity is a higher stage of the true 
 religion than Judaism. It was not our object to enlarge on 
 that head, in order not to exceed the limits of this present 
 pamphlet. Accordingly we only referred, first, to the 
 wonderful intrinsic life and victorious power of Christianity, 
 manifested by its rapid spread in the world, notwithstanding 
 the most cruel and protracted persecutions, and without the 
 use of worldly weapons ,* secondly, to the promises or 
 prophecies contained in the Old Testament itself respecting 
 a coming Messiah, and a higher stage of religion ; thirdly, to 
 the fact that Christianity actually sprang from the bosom of 
 the Jewish religion, the ground having there been prepared 
 for it by those prophecies; fourthly, to the well-attested 
 miracles performed by the Author of Christianity in proof of 
 His divine mission ; and fifthly, to the actual progress evident 
 in the religious teaching of the New Testament, as compared 
 with that of the Old. This latter point was illustrated by six 
 doctrinal subjects, three of them having particular reference 
 to God and divine things, viz. the revelation of God Himself, 
 His worship, and His kingdom ; and the other three to our 
 intercourse with our fellow-men, viz. retaliation, slavery, and 
 the treatment of the female sex, with special regard to 
 polygamy and divorce. Respecting all these six subjects, we 
 found the teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so much 
 more suited to man's deepest wants and loftiest asj^irations, so 
 much more spiritual and mature than the Law of Moses, that 
 we felt fully justified in regarding them, together with the 
 four preceding subjects of consideration, as conclusive proofs 
 of the belief of both Moslems and Christians, that Christianity 
 is a higher stage of the one true religion of God than the 
 religion of the ancient Jews, 
 
 n 2 
 
100 FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 The next great object of our investigation was the mutual 
 relation between Christianity and Mohammedjmism, or the 
 question whether tlie Koran was as much a fulfilment and 
 further development of the Gospel, as we had found this to be 
 a fulfilment and further development of the Mosaic Law. 
 While all parties, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, agree that 
 the Mosaic or Tsraelitish religion was a gift from God, and 
 while Christians and Moslems likewise agree in the belief 
 that the Christian religion was a still nobler and greater gift 
 from God, the Mohammedans stand alone in asserting, and 
 the Jews and Christians unite in denying, that Islam is the 
 greatest of all the gifts of God, nobler and higher than both 
 Judaism and Christianity. But without permitting ourselves 
 to be swayed in our investigation by this state of prevailing 
 opinions, we examined the question upon its own merits ; for 
 our object was to ascertain wdiether there really were valid 
 reasons to bear out the Mohammedan assertion. In order, 
 therefore, to avoid all appearance of unfairness or partiality 
 one way or another, we conducted our investigation of the 
 relation between Islamism and Christianity on exactly the 
 same points, and in the same order, as we had previously 
 examined the relation between Christianity and Judaism. 
 Thus we had to do, not merely with opinions and doctrines 
 respecting which difi'erent views may be formed by different 
 persons, but with documentary statements, with known facts 
 of history, and with statistics, respecting which there can be 
 no doubt, and from which arguments resulted of irresistible 
 cogency. The tendency of all these arguments, and the 
 result of our whole examination, proved decidedly antagonistic 
 to the claims of Islam, and we were driven by logical 
 necessity to concede, that on not one of these points brought 
 under our consideration did Islam exhibit a real advance or 
 higher development, as compared with CJiristianity , but in 
 many respects an unquestionable falling back on an inferior 
 and long superseded stand-point. If, therefore, we accej^t the 
 force of logical reasoning, or think at all on the subject, we 
 cannot help arriving at the conclusion that Islamism is not a 
 hi'dier sta^e of the true religion ; and if we were still to 
 profess a belief that it is, such faith must be blind and 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. ' 101 
 
 unmeaning, because without inward assurance or real 
 conviction. Accordingly it must appear, not merely reasonable, 
 but a positive and sacred duty, acknowledged as sucli by 
 every thinking and right-minded man,* openly and un- 
 flinchingly to accept the logical result of the preceding honest 
 and close investigations, namely, that Mohammedanism, while 
 holding some essential principles in common with the two 
 preceding systems, is yet inferior to the earlier in several vital 
 points, and immeasurably below the later in nearly all. 
 
 While thus frankly enunciating a conclusion from which 
 both reason and conscience leave no escape, we disclaim all 
 desire of detracting the least from the merits which may 
 justly belong to Islamism. It must also be distinctly under- 
 stood that we have hitherto regarded it mainly in the light of 
 a religion ; and as it confessedly unites rehgion and politics, 
 the result now announced cannot be intended to deter any one, 
 be he Moslem or non-Moslem, from examining whether 
 Islamism does not carry the palm before the other political 
 systems. 
 
 With this explanation, and the frank statement of the result 
 of our preceding investigation, the author of this pamphlet has 
 finished his proper task on the present occasion. Whether 
 Moslem readers will think their work is likewise ended, after 
 accompanying him thus far, is a different question. If they 
 are reflective and earnest men, they will not rest satisfied with 
 a negative result. Being once convinced on this head, they 
 will probably reason further thus : '' If Islam is not a higher 
 religion than Christiaiiity, can it be a divinely revealed 
 religion at all ? Is it the least reconcilable with the supreme 
 wisdom and goodness of God that He should once have given 
 to mankind a superior religion by Jesus Christ, and, 600 years 
 later, an inferior one by Mohammed? Is it more credible that 
 God should, on the latter occasion, send Gabriel as an express 
 messenger from heaven to reveal what had been known to 
 'the people of the book' hundreds and thousands of years 
 before, or that Mohammed should concoct a religious system 
 from the writings of Christians and Jews, and other sources, 
 and present it to his ignorant and heathen countrymen as a 
 new religion directly revealed from heaven ? " Nor does it 
 
102 • FOOD FOR REFLECTION. 
 
 seem possible tliat a sincere and tliinking Moslem could long 
 weigh such questions in his mind, without forming the 
 resolution, '' I shall no longer remain in uncertainty on this 
 most momentous "subject : being constrained by irrefragable 
 proof and evidence to allow that Islam is not a higher religion 
 than Christianity, I shall try whether my mind will not find 
 more light, and my heart more peace, by deciding for 
 Christianity as a higher and purer religion than Islam." 
 There are a number of Moslems even now, in various 
 countries, who thank God for having been led to take this 
 step. They testify that the faith they have embraced approves 
 itself as nobler and better than the one they have renounced. 
 They wish and pray that all their Moslem brethren may find 
 the same light of mind and peace of heart which they them- 
 selves enjoy, and which they have found nowhere than where 
 alone they are to be had, in the religion of Jesus Christ. The 
 writer of these lines, who is not a Christian merely because his 
 parents were so, but because he is convinced that he has 
 found in Christianity the highest revelation of the saving 
 truth and love of God, prays, with thousands and tens of 
 thousands of his fellow-believers, that God in His infinite 
 mercy may hasten the time when the Moslem nations shall 
 walk with us in the same light of truth, and rejoice with us 
 in the same experience of the saving love of God. We have 
 no selfish motive, and no worldly interest in all this. If 
 thousands of Mohammedans in Turkey, in Egypt, in Syria, in 
 India, and other countries, become true Christians, this will 
 bring us no earthly gain ; it will only make themselves better 
 and happier in life, hopeful in death, and blessed in eternity ; 
 and this is our only wish and aim — their salvation as well as 
 our own. We remember that we are standing on the brink 
 of eternity, and that before many years are passed, both the 
 writer and the readers of these lines will be summoned before 
 the judgment-seat of God, where all the secrets of the heart 
 are made manifest : how, then, could we dare to invite any 
 one to follow Christ and His religion, without being perfectly 
 assured, from our own inmost experience, that this leads to 
 that peace of mind, and to that blessed communion with God 
 our Maker, which every human being consciously or 
 
FOOD FOR REFLECTION. * 103 
 
 unconsciously seeks ? We know that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 still verifies tljat blessed word which He addressed to weary- 
 souls in the days of His life on earth, " Come unto me, all 
 ye that labour and are heavy laden, and / ijbill give you rest'' 
 (Matt. xi. 29.) We know that His testimony is faithful and 
 true, as if sealed with the seal of God, — that testimony which 
 He bore of His own mediatorship between God and man, 
 when He said, '^ I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man 
 Cometh unto the Father, but by me'' (John xiv. 6.) Therefore 
 we confidently invite every one bearing the name of man, to 
 test in his own person, and by his own experience, the truth 
 t)f what the Lord once said to a multitude of His followers, 
 " Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, 
 I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a 
 rock : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
 winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it 
 \ysis founded upon a rock.''' (Mat. vii. 24, 25.) 
 
 W. M. Wat^s, Crown Court, Temple Bar. 
 
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