ISLAM 
 
 A>"D 
 
 BY ^ ' 
 
 REV. JAMES S. 'IdENNIS, D.D., 
 
 PROP^SSOn OP THEOLOGY IS THE THEOLOGICAL SEHISAIiT 07 THE AMB"ICAS PR'^SBYTEIUAN 
 
 MISStOS, BKIK'JT, STRIA. 
 
 3=^eprix5.ted. frosa. Tlie ILv£issloaa,ry ^3'vle‘w of tlio 
 "V^orlca. for .A-v-grcLst, 1S33. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 FUNK & .WAGNALLS, 
 
 1 8 AND 20 Astor Place. 
 
 i88o. 
 
I 
 
 V. * 
 
ISLAM 
 
 AND 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, 
 
 BY /' 
 
 REV. JAMES S. IdENNIS, D.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN 
 
 MISSION, BEIRUT, SYRIA. 
 
 I?,eprirLted. frozn. Tlze ^v^issiozza, r 3 r I^eN7-ieTi;r of tlze 
 ■'^XT'orld. for -A.'u.g'ia.st, 1SS3. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS, 
 
 1 8 AND 20 Astor Place. 
 
 1889. 
 
NOTE BY THE EDITORS OF THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD 
 (ACCOMPANYING THE ARTICLE AS PRINTED IN THE REVIEW). 
 
 We are requested to withhold the name of the writer of this able and timely 
 article. We regret the necessity, as the name would be sure to command a 
 wide and considerate reading of it. Let it suffice to say, that the writer has 
 long enjoyed the very best opportunities for studying the system discussed in 
 the light of its historical development and results. 
 
Introductory Note. 
 
 Ix view of the present attitude of the Moslem authorities in tlie Turkish Empire 
 to Christian missions, and the strained relations between them and existing mis- 
 sionary agencies, and their watchful surveillance of even the foreign press to secure 
 if possible the evidence which will enable them to make out a case against the 
 Ameiican missionary and his work as inimical to the welfare of the Mohammedan 
 state and injurious to the moral and religious prestige of Islam, it was thought by 
 the writer to be the part of prudence to print this article in the “ Missionary Re- 
 view ot the World” without announcing its source as from a resident missionary in 
 Syria. It seems unwise needlessly to provoke and alarm a powerful antagonist, or 
 unnecessarily to imperil a precious work which has been pushed to its present suc- 
 cess by a large outlay in labor and expense. Nothing is to be gained by the formal 
 and open proclamation on the part of the missionary in the East of the fact that 
 Chi'istianity is to overthrow Islam, or that this is the end he has in view. An an- 
 nouncement of this kind would place the missionary in what the Moslem would 
 consider a pronounced attitude of enmity to both State and Church in the Ottoman 
 Empire. It is rather the part ot w’isdom and fidelity for the ambassador of Christ 
 to go on teaching and preaching the truth as his Master has given it to him, and let 
 his Master take care of results. The results themselves will prove in time the suffi- 
 cient proclamation of the mission of Christianity. It is requested, therefore, that so 
 far as the public prints are concerned the writer’s incognito should be cai’efullj’ ob- 
 served, and that even his connection with the missionary work in the East should 
 not be referred to. 
 
 A few copies of the article have been struck off with his name upon the title page 
 for private distribution among personal fi’iends. He begs the attention of all who 
 may receive this pamphlet to the subject discussed, with the earnest hope that the 
 coming struggle between Islam and Christianity may find the Christian public 
 avvake to the serious and subtle issues involved in the conflict, and prepared to re- 
 ject all muddled and bungling attempts at compromise with a view toplacing Islam 
 in S5'mnathetic relations with biblical truth, and classing it as embryonic Christian- 
 ity — an integral part of the divine religion God has given to man. Islam, although 
 it has seized upon one great truth of revelation and holds it with others of lesser 
 note as a noble captive caught in a wild foray into the spiritual desert of seventh 
 century religion in Arabia, is as a religious sj’stem only and merely human, and 
 needs be taught of God. It would be the most pitiable weakness and folly for the 
 Church of Christ to sit down with Islam and attempt to recast and readjust the 
 truths of God’s Word to suit the inner consciousness of an Oriental constituency. 
 Let it be the firm purpose and only aim of the Church to give the pure and saving 
 gospel to the Moslem world as God opens the way in his own time. 
 
 Protestant missions in the Turkish Empire as yet have hardly assumed any ag- 
 gressive attitude towards Moslems, nor have they undertaken directly and actively to 
 carr^’ on evangelistic work among them. Under existing circumstances this wmuld 
 be nothing less than a revolutionary movement of the most radical and dangerous 
 character. In a more quiet and unnoticed way through the circulation ot the Rible 
 and religious books, tracts, and newspapei’s, and the education of Moslem children, 
 and the establishment of Protestant churches free from the superstitions and idola- 
 trous practices of Oriental Christianity, and the general impulse given to free 
 thought and inquiry, a new spirit is being awakened among Moslems. A wide 
 spread desire for light is abroad among them ; secret convictions control many 
 
4 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 hearts whose true attitude towards Christ and the Bible is not suspected; many are 
 longing for religious liberty ; many are praying for guidance and strength amidst 
 overshadowing and appalling difficulties in the path of open and sincere confession. 
 They are for the first time in their history beginning to see Christianity to advan- 
 tage, and to recognize it in its pure and spiritual as distinguished from its apostate 
 form. 
 
 This transforming and leavening process of thought in such a mighty and com- 
 pact mass as Islam defies all attempt at description, and eludes all effort to formu- 
 late it in statistics. Everything in this region of indirect missionary work is tenta- 
 tive, intangible, preparatorj' ; results are in a state of solution ; spiritual forces are 
 hiding in awakened hearts ; conviction lies in ambush and bides its time ; the silent 
 praj'er, the patient hope, the quiet hour with the Bible, the conscious thrill of a new 
 found liberty of conscience — prudently concealed and carefully restrained as j’et — 
 perhaps the touch of faith upon the hem of Christ’s garment in the case of some un- 
 noticed ones in the surging throng, are the only signs of the presence of the living 
 gosjiel. God is merciful to those who “ wait for the morning” while yet unable to 
 break altogether from their spntual bondage. Many a soul sings its song of deliv- 
 erance in the silence and seclusion of its own heart's sanctuar}' before the voice of 
 the multitude can be heard around tlie shrine of a larger and wider national free- 
 dom. 
 
 America — where God has made the consciences of all men free — is to furnish, I 
 firmly believe, a large part of the spiritual and intellectual forces which will secure, 
 when God’s time comes, the blessing of religious liberty to the Moslem world. God 
 will work with other and sterner agencies, as history testifies; diplomacy does His 
 bidding, and armies are His servants. But the preparation of a race for the appre- 
 ciation and proper use of freedom, and the provision of the religious and educational 
 facilities for the growth and culture of natures introduced into new regions of 
 thought, and to fresh revelations of truth, and unfamiliar relations to the Deity, are 
 spheres of service second to none which God can commission one nation to do for 
 another. Let the Church of Christ be patient, as she can well afford to be. This 
 sublime task will require a large outlay of sacrifice and labor, and may cost a strug- 
 gle which will tax the faith and fortitude of Christianity. There are already’ abun- 
 dant indications that Islam will make strenuous endeavors to maintain its ascenden- 
 C3’, and will resist vigorously every attempt which Christianity may make to break 
 its ranks. Protestant mission work in the Turkish Empire is, and has been from 
 the beginning, lai’gely in the hands of American missionaries. Syria — and I may 
 
 say the entire Turkish Empire — is the hottest fighting ground in the whole battle 
 field of the Church militant. Islam, with its political and military supreniacj', and 
 Oriental Christianity with its vigilant and powerful hierarchy are in common antag- 
 onism to evangelical missions, which have entered the Orient as the champion of 
 biblical truth and the advocate of liberal education. Into this historic field, which 
 calls for a heroic measure of faith, patience, fortitude, and sacrifice, God has called 
 our American churches to enter. The West, in its happy career of prosperity 
 and progress, must not forget the East, whence came the sweetest and noblest 
 forces of our social and religious life. There must be no Monroe doctrine in Ameri- 
 can Christianity bidding us hold aloof from the intellectual and spiritual struggles of 
 the Oriental world. A clarion call speaking as never man spake, with an authority 
 which none can question, comes to us out of the East with the dawn of Christian 
 history — “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This 
 is the earliest as it is the latest message of the skies to the followers of “ His star 
 in the East.” This is the message of the hour. 
 
 With cordial and fraternal greetings. 
 
 The Author. 
 
 64 Pars Place, Newark, New Jersey. 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Human' religions are compared in the Bible to ‘‘broken cisterns, 
 that can hold no ■water.” God is Himself the source of all true 
 religion, and in contrast with “ broken cisterns,” in this same verse 
 (Jer. ii: 13), is compared to a “Fountain of living waters.” All 
 human systems of religion are not only incapable of producing living 
 water, but, like “broken cisterns,” they will hold no water. They are 
 not simply on a lower level of wisdom and power than the divine re- 
 ligion, but as religions they are failures, incapable of holding in any 
 helpful and saving way even the modicum of truth which they may 
 have in solution, and wholly unable to provide tlie soul of man with 
 the living water which will quench his thirst. 
 
 Our subject invites our attention to a religious faith which, although 
 it may be classed as a “broken cistern,” has had a marvelous history, 
 and to-day dominates the minds and hearts of millions of our fellow- 
 men in the Orient. AYe mean Islam, or the religion of Mohammed. 
 Here the thought will perhaps occur to many. Is it not taking too much 
 for granted to rank Mohammedanism among merely human religions ? 
 It has been the faith of a vast number of our fellow-men, who have 
 been singularly loyal and intense in their devotion to it, and has held 
 its own with extraordinary tenacity, while its central truth has ever 
 been the acknowledgment of God’s existence and supremacy. This is 
 all true, and Islam must have the credit of it. There is probably no 
 religion, not confessedly based upon the facts recorded in the Bible, 
 which has such a satisfying element of truth in its creed and presents 
 such a conception of a personal and supreme God as Islam. As 
 compared with idolatry it is an immeasurably nobler form of worship. 
 As contrasted with the metaphysical vagaries of other Oriental 
 religions it is doctrinally helpful. It is, however, simply the old 
 monotheism of the ancient .Jewish religion projected into the Christian 
 ages with the divine environment of Judaism left out and a human 
 environment substituted. “ There is no God but God,” was the creed 
 
6 
 
 IS^AM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 of the Jew long before the Moslem proclaimed it. Mohammed and 
 his followers adopted it, apparently in utter unconsciousness, 
 or rather in supercilious rejection of its historic environment 
 under the Jewish dispensation, and brought it into line 
 as the leading truth of a human scheme of religion. They rejected its 
 historic development in the Incarnation, acknowledged Christ simply 
 as one of the prophets, supplemented and in almost every respect 
 superseded Him by another, and making Mohammed the central per- 
 sonality, they established the Mohammedan religion as the latest 
 and best revelation from heaven — a religion whose right it was to 
 reign, and whose prerogative it was to supplant and annihilate every 
 other religion, and especially Christianity. 
 
 We cannot undertake in the limits of this article to bring for- 
 ward the evidences that Mohammedanism as a spiritual system must 
 be considered a “broken cistern,” nor can we undertake to present 
 the evidence furnished by the present state of the ^loslem world, that 
 as a religion it is futile and powerless as an ujilifting agency. It 
 would absorb too much of our space, and lead us away from the main 
 purpose we have in view. We must be content to rest the verdict as 
 to its alien birth and false credentials upon one single consideration, 
 which for our purposes at the present time should be sufficient to carry 
 conviction. “What think ye of Christ?” is here, as elsewhere, a test 
 question. The Mohammedan religion, ivhile acknowledging Christ as 
 one of the prophets, yet denies that he is anything more flian one of 
 the prophets. His unique position as God in the flesh — the Messiah 
 of prophecy, the Redeemer of men, the heaven-sent Mediator, the 
 divinely-appointed victim of an atoning sacrifice, the Projihet, Priest 
 and King of a redeemed Israel, the risen Lord and the ascended Inter- 
 cessor, the only name given among men, is boldly <and defiantly denied 
 and repudiated by the Moslem. The office, and work, and dignity of 
 the Holy Spirit are also rejected. In place of the divine Christ and the 
 life-giving Holy Spirit, we have a conception of God which is but an 
 imperfect and misleading reproduction of the earliest Jewish idea, and 
 is cold and bald and stern, without the tenderness of fatherhood or the 
 sweet ministries of pity — for, after all, divine mercy in the view of the 
 Moslem is quite as much of the nature of a deserved reward as of a com- 
 passionate ministry ; it is a reproduction, through a piireH human 
 channel, in an environment of ignorance, of the earliest revelation of a 
 Supreme Being. This distorted reflection of the primitive teachings of 
 religion about the Deity is still further marred and shadowed by making 
 Mohammed His greatest prophet and the Koran His final and consum- 
 mate revelation to man. The result as compared with Christianity is 
 a notable failure on a merely human plane of religious thought, yet 
 with enough of the light of heaven borrowed and misused to deceive 
 the conscience and lead an ignorant Oriental constituency to accept it 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 7 
 
 as a revelation from heaven, and Mohammed as a prophet sent of God. 
 An intelligent Christian faith can pronounce but one judgment upon 
 this question. After recognizing every element of truth which Islam 
 has borrowed from Judaism or Christianity, it must pronounce it lack- 
 ing in the essentials of saving religion as we find them in God’s Word. 
 What is included in Moslem doctrine is valuable, but what is 7iot there 
 is essential. The modicum of truth is lost in the maximum of error. 
 A counterfeit coin may have some grains of pure metal in it, but its 
 entire make-up is none the less a deception, and it must be con- 
 demned. So Mohammedanism must be condemned, not because it 
 does not contain any truth, but because the truth is so mixed ivith 
 superabounding alloy that'in the combination it has lost its virtue and 
 has become simply an ingredient of a compound which, on the whole, 
 must be regarded as false metal. One truth mixed in with twenty 
 errors will not make a resultant of truth, especially if the twenty 
 errors are in direct opposition to other truths as essential as the one 
 included. If we extend our survey over the whole field of Moslem 
 doctrine and practice the conviction becomes irresistible that its 
 moral influence in the world has been harmful, and its spiritual re- 
 sults have brought to man nothing higher than formalism and self- 
 righteousness. Satan is represented as sometimes “ transformed into 
 an angel of light.” Islam, as a religious system, may be regarded as 
 playing the part of “ an angel of light ” among the religions of the world. 
 
 Mohammedanism isa profound theme, and one which has occupied the 
 minds of many accomplished scholars. It has been the subject of much 
 patient research and careful thought by some of the greatest students 
 of history. Dr. Johnson once remarked that “there are two objects 
 of curiosity — the Christian world and the Mohammedan world ; all 
 the rest may be considered as barbarous.” The subject is worthy of a 
 careful examination, both for its own sake as one of the enigmas of 
 religious history, and also to prepare our minds for an intelligent un- 
 derstanding of the amazing task to which God is leading the church, 
 viz. : the conversion of the Moslem world to Christianity. The duty 
 of Christianity to Mohammedanism, the enormous difficulties in the 
 way of discharging it, the historic grandeur of the conflict, the 
 way in which the honor of Christ is involved in the result, and the 
 brilliant issues of victory all combine to make this problem of the 
 true relation of Christian missions to Islam one of the most fas- 
 cinating and momentous themes which the great missionary move- 
 ment of the present century has brought to the attention of the 
 Christian church. The number of Moslems in the world is given in 
 the latest statistical tables as 200,000,000. This is possibly too high 
 an estimate, but we may safely fix the figure at not less than 180,000,- 
 000. They are chiefly in Western Asia, India, and Africa, with a few 
 in Southeastern Europe. It may be roughly estimated that the total 
 
8 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 number of tliose ivlio have lived and died in the Moslem faith since 
 its establishment is over 6,000,000,000 — a number equivalent to nearly 
 five times the present population of the globe. Of this vast number a 
 large proportion have, of course, died in infancy. We are dealing, there- 
 fore, with the religious faith of about one-seventh of the human race. 
 It cannot be regarded as a stagnant and effete religion, unaggressive in 
 spirit and powerless to inspire devotion and sacrifice. It is to-day 
 probably the most pushing, aggressive, and formidable foe to Chris- 
 tianity on foreign mission ground. It is historically true, I think, that 
 never has Christianity been called upon to face a more thoroughly 
 equipped and a more desperately determined foe than Islam ; never ha- 
 our heaven-sent gospel received a more defiant challenge than that 
 given it by the religion of Mohammed. 
 
 The time has come for the Church of Christ seriously to consider 
 her duty to this large fraction of our race. It is not to be supposed 
 that a church guided and inspired by an Almighty Leader will neglect 
 a duty simjily because it is difficult and calls for faith and fortitude. 
 It is especially foreign to the spirit of American Christianity to slight 
 a task because it is hard, or ignore a question of moral reform or re- 
 ligious responsibility because it looks formidable. Let us endeavor, 
 then, calmly to consider the duty of Christian missions to the Moslems. 
 Is there a duty of this kind? If so, what special difficulties must be 
 overcome in order to its successful accomplishment; what should be 
 our aim ; and what is the spirit which should inspire and govern us in 
 the proper discharge of it? 
 
 The duty seems plain — “Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature.” The gospel of Christ, not of Mohammed — 
 to every creature, because all need the gospel. If there were a pos- 
 sibility of a human substitute for the gospel, we might consider it an 
 open question whether salvation is of ^lohammed ; but Christ has 
 taught us one way of salvation for all men, and that way is through 
 Him — through the merits of Ilis sacrifice, and not through works or 
 worthiness in man. I would not be understood as implying here that 
 every Moslem is necessarily lost. If he despises and rejects Christ, 
 and puts his sole trust in Mohammed, or even trusts in divine mercy 
 because that mercy is his due as a Moslem, I should not feel that there 
 was a substantial basis of hope for him. lie is looking to a human sav- 
 iour, or he is simply claiming the divine mercy as a subsidy to the Mos- 
 lem religion. I can conceive, however, of a Mohammedan while formally 
 adhering to his religion, in reality taking such an attitude of heart to 
 Christ that he may receive mercy and pardon for Christ’s sake, 
 though he is not openly enrolled on the side of Christ. God alone can 
 judge and pronounce when a soul takes that attitude of humility and 
 faith towards Uis Son, or where His Son is not known, towards His 
 infinite mercy, which will open the way for Him to apply the merits of 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 9 
 
 Christ’s atonement to the salvation of the soul. AVliere Christ is 
 known and recognized we have no margin of hope outside of a full and 
 conscious acceptance of Him. In pi-oportion as God has left the souls 
 of men in ignorance and darkness about Christ, in that proportion 
 may we enlarge the margin of hope that His infinite mercy will find 
 the way to respond to conscious penitence and humble trust by freely 
 granting and applying the boundless merits of Christ’s sacrifice to a 
 soul truly seeking after Him. We understand the Bible to teach that 
 all opportunity of accepting the gospel is limited to life this side of 
 the grave, and that there is no probation or renewed opportunity 
 beyond our earthly existence. It is also clearly taught in the Bible 
 that salvation is not of works nor of external adherence to any sect. 
 The Jew was not saved because he was a Jew. The Christian is not 
 saved because he is a Christian. The Moslem, of course, cannot be 
 saved because he is a Moslem. All who may be saved outside of 
 formal and visible connection with Christianity, will be saved because 
 of a real and invisible connection with Christ. They will have ob- 
 tained consciously, or unconsciously, by the aid of God’s Spirit, that at- 
 titude of humility and trust toward God which Avill make it consistent 
 with His character and in harmony with His wisdom and goodness to im- 
 part to their souls the free gift -of pardon through Christ’s merits, and 
 apply to them in the gladness of Ilis love the benefits of Christ’s death. 
 It is in any case salvation by gift, received from God’s mercy, and based 
 upon Christ’s atonement, and not by Avorks or by reason of human merit. 
 We claim, therefore, that the Mohammedan, as such, needs the 
 knoAvledge of Christ, and can only be saved through Christ. He needs 
 to be taught Christianity and brought into the light of Bible truth. 
 He needs to recognize the dangerous errors of his religion and turn to 
 Christianity as the true light from heaven. He needs to take a 
 radically different and essentially new attitude toAvards Christ. He 
 needs spiritual regeneration and moral reformation. In one Avord, he 
 needs the gospel. He needs all its lessons, and all its help, and all its 
 inspiration. Here Ave rest the question of duty. If any class of men 
 need the gospel, to them it should bo given, and it is our mission in 
 the Avorld as Christians to do this. 
 
 Let us turn now to consider the special difficulties of mission Avork 
 among Moslems. That there are serious and formidable difficulties is 
 not simply the A'erdict of the literary student or the historical theo- 
 logian, but it is a matter of experience. All missionaries in Moslem 
 communities recognize this, and there is hardly a problem in theAvhole 
 range of mission service which is a severer tax upon faith and courage 
 and Avisdom than that involved in the effort to Avin converts to Chris- 
 tianity from Islam. It is necessary to a full understanding of this 
 phase of our subject that Ave should secure if possible an inside view of 
 the strength and resources of the Mohammedan faith. Let us en- 
 
10 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 deavoi’ to take the measure of our foe. Let us ask whence the power 
 and prestige and influence of Islam. What is its secret of success? 
 What makes it a force which so easily dominates the religious life of so 
 many millions? What gives it its aggressive push and its staying 
 power ? It is comparatively easy to show the immense inferiority of 
 Islam to Christianity in the essential points of true religion, especially 
 those of practical morality. It is, however, for this very reason all the 
 more difficult to give a satisfactory explanation of its successes, and 
 show why Christianity is so slow in coping with it effectively. Islam has 
 arisen, within the pale, so to speak, of Christianity. It has overrun and 
 held ground which is historically Christian. Its great conflict has been 
 largely with ChristianitjL It now occupies regions which were the 
 scene of the earliest triumphs of the Christian church. Christianity, 
 to be sure, has held its own in a marvelous way in the ancient Oriental 
 Christian sects which have held to their Christian faith in the very 
 centres of the Moslem domination. Their influence, however, has been 
 simply negative. The part they have played has been that of resistance 
 and stubborn adherence to the external symbols of Christianity. They 
 have never succeeded, for good reasons, in impressing the Moslem with 
 the superiority of the Christian religion. We must not fail, how’ever, 
 to give them the credit they deserve, and to recognize God’s wonder- 
 ful providence in preserving them to be the medium of introducing 
 through Protestant missionary effort a pure and spiritual form of 
 Christianity into the very heart of the Moslem world. 
 
 The question recurs to us — Whence the success of Islam? We mean 
 its success, not as a saving religion, but in winning and holding its 
 devotees in the very presence of the Christian centuries. There are some 
 considerations which throw light upon this point, and if we give them 
 a few moments of patient attention they may help to lift the burden of 
 this great mystery, and at the same time will bring to our attention 
 more clearly the full meaning of the task we have before us in conquer- 
 ing Islam for Christ with the spiritual weapons of the gospel. It is 
 not my purpose, and it is, moreover, clearly impossible to attempt here 
 any full or critical survey of Mohammedanism. This would require a 
 volume, and the gifts and learning of the careful student of Oriental 
 history. What I have to offer, however, towards the solution of the 
 problem of Mohammedan success will be the result of a patient study 
 of the subject in connection with unusual opportunities for personal 
 observation of the intellectual, social and religious life of Moslems. 
 
 Islam is a living power — a strong and vigorous moral force among 
 Orientals for several reasons, and with all of these Christianity must 
 reckon if she is to win her way. We will name them in order : 
 
 I. In its origin, and also in its subsequent history, Mohammedanism 
 represents the spirit of reform working under the inspiration of 
 a great truth. Mohammed appears upon the stage of history as a 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 11 
 
 religious reformer. In the earh’ period of his career lie was influenced 
 no doubt by sincere motives. His purpose was to inaugurate a religious 
 revolution — a revolt against the idolatry which prevailed in Arabia 
 The heathenism of his day was gross idolatry ; and the Christianity 
 of that age in the Orient was little better in its superstitious and idol- 
 atrous practices. It was the era of the iconoclast even within the cir- 
 cle of professed Christianity. It was the purpose of Mohammed to 
 re-establish among men a spiritual worship of the one God — to 
 demolish forever the Arabian Pantheon. The unity and spirituality 
 of the Supreme Being were basis ideas in his religious creed, 
 and he advocated direct communion with God in prayer and 
 worship, and the utter rejection of idolatry, which in his age was equiv- 
 alent to polytheism. This movement was certainly a remarkable one 
 when we consider the times and the environment out of which it 
 sprung. Had it been inspired and guided by the Spirit of God, and 
 founded upon the revealed Word, with a divinely called and sanctified 
 leader, we might have seen the great reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury anticipated in the seventh. 
 
 The power and prestige of Mohammed were due to the fact that 
 men soon believed him to be a prophet sent of God, and his mes- 
 sage was to such an extent in the name and to the honor of God that 
 his commission seemed to be genuine. In an age of abject supersti- 
 tion and driveling idolatry he announced with the prophetic fervor of 
 conviction that great truth which has ever had the power to arrest the 
 attention of earnest minds, namely; the existence of one only and true 
 God, supreme in His ^vill and absolute in His power. With the music 
 of this eternal truth Mohammed has held the attention of a large por- 
 tion of the Eastern world for over twelve hundred years. This one 
 message has seemed to guarantee him as a prophet to his misguided and 
 uudiscriminating followers. Having given bonds, as it were, of such 
 overwhelming value in this one supreme truth, men have not been 
 careful to scrutinize in other respects his credentials ; with the charm 
 and majesty of this one great central idea of all religion, he has swept 
 all before him. This, in connection with the success of his arms, as 
 his followers carried on in his name their successful aggressive warfare, 
 has been his passport to the front rank of religious leadership ; and 
 although he hopelessly forfeited his position by the most manifest 
 signs of moral weakness and human ignorance, yet the clarion call of 
 “Xo God but God !'’has held the ear of the East with a constancy at 
 once marvelous and pathetic. It was considered in no wise to his dis- 
 credit that he taught what is practically a plan of salvation by works 
 based upon external allegiance to a religious creed, and it rather added 
 to his popularity with his Oriental following that his religion officially 
 sanctioned polygamy, slavery, and unlimited divorce. 
 
 The Prophet of Mecca, however, was simply a religious enthusiast 
 
12 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 with a tendency to mysticism — a man of visions and dreams — with a 
 sensitive and imaginative temperament and a disordered physical sys- 
 tem, and a nature swayed by passions and lacking in moral stamina, 
 who became deeply impressed with the Jewish conception of one spir- 
 itual God, and conceived himself a prophet of monotheistic reform 
 amidst the abounding follies of idolatry. Under the influence, no doubt, 
 of sincere conviction, he began to teach and proclaim the religious ideas 
 which had lodged in his mind from all sources — Jewish and Christian 
 and heathen — and shaped them into the rude consistency of the Mos- 
 lem code. He can hardly be considered the originator of the religious 
 reform he advocated. lie was rather the exponent of a spirit of refor- 
 mation which seems to have been in the air at that time. The move- 
 ment at first did not seem to imply more than a purely religious pur- 
 pose. It was not until the exigencies of his success led him to adopt 
 methods of expediency and worldly policy that Mohammed became the 
 political schemer and the ambitious leader of a military movement. 
 
 II. ^Mohammedanism was established and propagated by the agency 
 of two of the most energetic and commanding forces of human history 
 — the power of moral conviction and the power of the sword. 
 In addition it at once threw its mantle of protection and loyalty over 
 every adherent, and acknowledged him as a member of a Moslem brother- 
 hood in which all are equal, and all can expect and claim the help and 
 protection of all others. Islam is a religious caste — so much so that in 
 India, the land of castes, it exists and wins its converts from the peo- 
 ple of India without any disturbance or shock to the claims and exac- 
 tions of tiie spirit of caste. It is an immense religious monopoly — a 
 gigantic spiritual corporation whose celestial capital is of unknown pro- 
 portions — a stupendous combination for the exclusive handling of the 
 commodities of Paradise. It is an actual “ Brotherhood” of Moslems, 
 a social, political and religious “Union” of knights of the turban. 
 With the exception that the Sunnites repudiate the Shiites as heretics, 
 and the latter return the compliment, every Moslem befriends and 
 respects every other Moslem because of the religious affinity which 
 exists between them. This striking feature of the Moslem religion is 
 to-day one of the most powerful forces to hold Mohammedanism 
 together throughout the world. 
 
 III. Islam has never known or seen Christianity except in its cor- 
 rupt and semi-idolatrous forms. This is a damage to Christianity — a 
 gain to Islam. Mohammedanism is thus enabled to appear in the role 
 of a spiritual religion inviting to direct communion with the Deity, 
 scorning the fiction of a human priesthood as in any sense a necessary 
 instrument of mediation between God and the soul, and rebuking idol- 
 atry in all its forms. On the other hand, the corrupt Christianity of 
 the East seems to be deeply imbued with the spirit of idolatry, over- 
 loaded with superstitious practices, and weighted with the enormous 
 
tSLAil AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 13 
 
 assumptions of the Oriental priesthood. This was, and is still, an ele- 
 ment of weakness to Christianity and of strengtli to Islam. It reduces 
 the spiritual energy and convincing power of Christianity to a mini- 
 mum, and gives to Islam a vigor and assurance and a direct hold upon 
 the religious nature which it could not have had in the presence of a 
 purer form of Christianity. Could Islam have subdued a Christianity 
 filled with the spiritual power of the Eeformation ? Could it gain its 
 historic victories over the form of Christianity found in our American 
 churches? Most assuredly not I The power of a living Christ is more 
 tlian a match for Islam in any age of the world and among any class 
 of people. There is no hope that the Moslem will ever be converted 
 to Christianity as we see it in the Greek and Papal churches of the 
 Orient. There is an ever brightening hope that a purer and more 
 spiritual form of Christianity may carry conviction. We are sure, in 
 fact, that God will never use any other agency than the gospel in its 
 purity as an instrument for the conversion of the Moslem world. It 
 is with this conviction tliat Protestant missions in the Orient have been 
 laboring ever since their entrance into the field to establish a pure 
 Christianity in the East, that a regenerated Christianity may be ready 
 to carry conviction to hearts hitherto shut and barred against the en- 
 trance of the truth. It will be an immense gain to Christianity as a re- 
 ligion, in the eyes of the Moslem, not to be encumbered with the odium 
 of image and picture worship as we see it in the Oriental churches. It is 
 at present a part of a Moslem’s religion to despise every form of Chris- 
 tianity with which he has come in contact. It is only as he becomes 
 familiar with Protestant forms of worship and thought and life that 
 he begins to realize that there is not necessarily an idolatrous element 
 and a human priesthood associated with it. 
 
 IV. Islam has all the advantage which there is in the magnetic 
 power of personal leadership. Christianity has Christ. Islam has 
 Mohammed. Such a comparison may startle and half offend Christian 
 sensibilities, but it may be unwelcome to the Moslem for a reason pre- 
 cisely opposite. Mohammed is regarded as an inspired man and a 
 divinely sent prophet and the supreme historical personality in the 
 religion he founded. There is a magnetic charm about the prophet of 
 Islam which thrills the whole Moslem world. They believe in him 
 and are ready at any sacrifice to uphold the honor of his name. 
 Would that the nominal Christian world — we do not refer here to the 
 inner circle of Christ’s loving followers — were as visibly and unreserv- 
 edly loyal to the honor and dignity of Christ’s name as Islam is to that 
 of her prophet. Imagine the city of Xew York thrown into a state of 
 dangerous excitement because some one down at the Battery had 
 cursed the name of Jesus Christ. In any Eastern city where Moslems 
 reside the improper or contemptuous use of the name of iMohammed 
 in public would produce an uproar and possibly lead to violence and 
 
14 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 bloodshed. To be sure, we must recognize in this connection the dif- 
 ference between the conservatism of civilization and the fanaticism 
 of Eastern devotees ; yet the fact remains that there is a public and 
 prevailing respect for the name of Mohammed in the Moslem world 
 which indicates the commanding power of his personality among his 
 followers. 
 
 V. Islam proposes easy terms of salvation and easy dealings 
 with sin, and is full of large license and attractive prom- 
 ise to the lower sensuous nature. The shibboleth of “ISio 
 God but God ” is the password to the skies. Salvation is simplv 
 the provision of mercy on God's part for all true Moslems. It is 
 mercy shown because of works done and as a reward for loyalty. 
 If that loyalty is crowned by martyrdom, then martyrdom in its 
 turn is crowned by exceptional rewards. Holiness as an element 
 of God’s character and man’s religious life is a very vague and 
 shadowy matter to the Moslem, and the same may be said of his view 
 of the nature of sin. This is, however, quite consistent with the fact 
 that Islam for conscience sake insists on many of the great truths of 
 religion such as faith and prayer, God’s absolute sovereignty, man’s 
 moral accountability, a coming judgment, and a future state both of 
 happiness aud retribution, and meanwhile maintains a formal but very 
 indifferent ethical and religious code which it strives to enforce. It is 
 true, nevertheless, that regeneration and moral reformation — the be- 
 coming of a “ new creature,” as the Scriptures express it, is not a doc- 
 trine or a practical outcome of the Moslem religion. Regeneration is 
 not a password to the Mohammedan heaven. *‘Ye must be born 
 again ” is not an essential of his creed. Transformation of character 
 is to him simply a metaphysical fiction, and legal justification by the 
 merits of Christ is an absurdity. Hawthorne’s charming literary fic- 
 tion of a celestial railway is a suggestive illustration of the Moslem 
 theory of salvation. Every good Mohammedan has a perpetual free 
 pass over that line which not only secures to him personally a safe 
 transportation to Paradise, but provides for him upon his arrival there 
 so luxuriously that he can leave all the superfluous impedimenta of 
 his earthly harem behind him and begin his celestial career with an 
 entirely new outfit. 
 
 We e.xpress no astonishment that Mohammed did not teach these 
 high mysteries of religion, nor do we charge him with any deliberate 
 purpose to deceive and play the part of an imposter ; we simply point 
 to the absence of these unique and essential features of revealed truth 
 •as an evidence that his scheme of religion, and his method of salvation, 
 are merely human conceptions, and that his soul was not taught of 
 God in the things of the kingdom. The light which shone around 
 him was a broken and darkened reflection of divine revelation, which 
 he proceeded to focus as best he could with the lens of human 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSION'S. 
 
 15 
 
 reason. He brought the scattered rays to the burning point in his 
 doctrine of “ one God/’ but the result was God and Mohammed — 
 not the eternal truth revealed in its true setting by the inspired 
 guidance of the Divine Spirit, but distorted by the unguided pre- 
 sumption of the human medium. 
 
 VI. Islam comes into conflict with the doctrinal teachingsof Christian- 
 ity just at those points where reason has its best vantage ground 
 in opposition to faith. The doctrines which Islam most strenuously 
 opposes and repudiates in Christianity are confessedly the most profound 
 mysteries of the faith. They are the great problems over which Chris- 
 tianity herself has ever pondered with amazement and awe and with 
 reference to which there has been the keenest discussion and the 
 largest reserve, even within the ranks of professed believers. The In- 
 carnation, the Divinity of Christ, the Trinity, are all stumbling blocks 
 to the Moslem and are looked upon rather in the light of ridiculous 
 enigmas than sober truths. The doctrine of the Cross, the whole 
 conception of atonement, is to his mind a needless vagary. Divine 
 mercy, in his view, is ample enough and can act freely and promptly in 
 the case of all Moslems without the mysterious mediation of a vicarious 
 sacrifice. That the Incarnate Christ should die upon the cross as a 
 sacrifice for the sins of men is to his mind an absurdity which borders 
 upon blasphemy. It is in vain you attempt to solve these mysteries by 
 a refined theory of Christ’s exalted personality with its two natures in 
 one person. It is to his mind simply unfathomable, and he dismisses 
 the whole subject of Christ’s unique position and work as taught in 
 the Bible with a feeling of impatience as only one of many Christian 
 superstitions. We think it was John Bunyan who once said when he saw 
 a criminal led to execution : “ There, but for the grace of God, 
 goes John Bunyan.” As we think of this attitude of the Moslem to- 
 wards the mysteries of the Christian faith, and measure the capacity 
 of our own unaided reason to deal with such themes as these, who of 
 us is not ready to exclaim : “ This is probably just the attitude which 
 my own darkened and finite reason would take were it not for the 
 guidance of God’s revealed Word?” These mysteries of the Trinity, of 
 God in the flesh, and of Christ upon the Cross are the most amazing 
 revelations of the Infinite to the finite mind, and it is only as faith 
 aids and supports reason that they will be trustfully, joyfully and 
 gratefully received. The Moslem objects also to Christian morality, 
 and regards it as an impracticable ideal which he never found exempli- 
 fied in all the Christianity he ever knew anything about. Unfortu- 
 nately, the ethical standards and the constant practice of a large part of 
 the Christian laity and the Christian priesthood of all ranks in the 
 Orient is a sad confirmation of his theory that Christianity is a shabby 
 piece of hypocrisy — impossible in doctrine and in practice a shallow 
 sham. 
 
16 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Let US pause for a moment in review and quietly take the measure 
 of this foe. Remember that Islam in its origin and in its subsequent 
 contact with Christianity, was the spirit of reformation inspired by 
 high enthusiasm grasping a great religious truth and contending for 
 it in the face of soul-degrading and soul destroying idolatiy. I verily 
 believe, if you and I had lived in those times amidst the dark idolatry 
 of Arabia and had possessed the conviction and the courage we would have 
 sprung to the banner of Mohammed, and would have been thrilled 
 with the thought that there was no God but God, and probably we 
 should have been captivated with the idea that iMohammed was a 
 leader sent of God. The unity and supremacy of God is to-day the 
 central truth of the Moslem’s creed, in the recognition of which he 
 subdues his soul and prostrates his body, and with a feeling of pro- 
 found conviction says : ‘‘La ilah ilia Ullah ! ” Remember again the 
 fiery energy of the Moslem and the marvelous successes of his arms 
 and his practical recognition of religious brotherhood. Remember, 
 again, that he has never been famdiar with anything but a corrupt and 
 scandalous Christianity. Remember the charm and power of that his- 
 toric personality of the Prophet of Islam. Remember its offer of 
 immediate access to God and a free and exclusive salvation to all loyal 
 adherents. Remember its liberal margin for human faults and pas- 
 sions and the fact that it lays no violent hands upon sins of the flesh. 
 Remember the Paradise it pictures to the sensuous Oriental imagina- 
 tion. Remember that it makes its issue with Christianity and puts 
 forward its assumptions of superiority just at those ])oints ivhere the 
 weak and finite reason of man is most inclined to falter and yield, 
 and where Christianity advances truths which only a God-taught faith 
 can receive and grasp, and which have always been attacked with equal 
 vehemence by human philosophy and rationalistic criticism. Remem- 
 ber, moreover, that Islam has always regarded Christianity as cowed 
 and defeated, and that Reformed Christianity, with its spiritual weap- 
 ons and its resources of grace and its heavenly alliances, has never 
 fairly grappled with Mohammedanism, and that every energy of both 
 state and church will be in array to prevent the very entrance of Chris- 
 tianity into the field, and will seek to hold the Moslem world intact by 
 every resource of irresponsible power. If we bear in mind also that in 
 the Turkish Empire at least every defection from the Moslem ranks is 
 looked upon in the same light as a desertion from the army, we can 
 form some conception of the gigantic task and the heroic opportunity 
 God is preparing in the near future for the Christian church. Chris- 
 tianity in her historic childhood was called upon to contend with the 
 colossal power of the heathen Roman Empire. She was victorious, 
 although her resources were limited and her opponent was, to all hu- 
 man judgment, unconquerable. Let her not think now in her splendid 
 maturity, with her imperial resources, her heavenly Leader, her gracious 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 1^ 
 
 mission, and witli the crying needs and the pressing problems and the 
 deepening conflicts of this nineteenth century challenging her attention, 
 that her warfare is accomplished and she can disband her forces. 
 Islam and all else arrayed in opposition must first give place to Chris- 
 tianity. Our Lord is even now leading His church to this battle 
 ground of sublime privilege and high responsibility. His leadership 
 is our inspiration. His promises our hope. His power our trust. His 
 glory and supremacy our aim and the only possible outcome of the 
 contest. 
 
 Christian missions, as related to Mohammedanism and the mission- 
 ary activity of Islam are just now live themes among readers of our 
 current literature in Europe and America. A prolonged and vigorous 
 debate has arisen in the periodicals of our day, and more especially in 
 Church of England circles, upon this subject, arising from a paper pre- 
 sented by Canon Taylor at the Church of England Congress in 1887. 
 His exaggerated statements of the present progress of Islam have been 
 fully answered by Sir William Hunter. We shall discuss here only his 
 ideal views of Islam as a religion. The whole field is now being 
 searched and discussed by both the friends and critics of missions. 
 Aside from the literary and historic interest which Oriental students 
 would find in- the discussion, the whole subject of the propriety, neces- 
 sity and usefulness of Christian missions to Moslems has come to the 
 front in the debate. It is a matter which under present couditious 
 fairly challenges the attention of Christendom, and as our American 
 Congregational and Presbyterian churches have important and very 
 successful missions in the Turkish Empire, the stronghold of the Mos- 
 lem faith, it is a subject of interest also to American Christianity. Our 
 American churches have at present a constituency of 70,000 Protestant 
 adherents to their mission churches in the Turkish Empire, including 
 Syria and Egypt. Of this number 15,200 are upon the roll of church 
 membership, and additions to the church at present are at the rate of 
 about 1,500 every year. There are six American colleges in the em- 
 pire with 1,200 students, and 700 mission schools with 40,000 pupils. 
 The Bible has been translated by American missionaries into every 
 prominent language of the empire, and tens of thousands of copies are 
 annually sold. The mission presses in Turkey, including Syria, print 
 not less than 40,000,000 of pages of religious and educational litera- 
 ture every year, including over 20,000,000 of pages of the Word of 
 God. These converts of whom I have spoken are not, however, from 
 the Moslems — they are from the Oriental Christian churches, among 
 which a reformation work is going on and a purer form of Christianity 
 is being established. There are converts from Islam to Christianity 
 in India and in Egypt, but Moslem converts in any numbers cannot 
 openly at least be won as yet within the limits of the Turkish Empire, 
 for the government will not allow the effort to be made ; nor is a Mos- 
 
18 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 lem’s life safe for an hour (except perhaps in Egypt) if he openly becomes 
 a Christian. It is hard to convince when conviction means death ; it is 
 hardly possible to cultivate the spirit of martyrdom before conviction. 
 The Turkish government, just at present, is in a state of very lively 
 suspicion with reference to this growing and expanding work of Amer- 
 ican missionaries. The Turkish authorities, from the Sultan down- 
 wards, are beginning to feel that Islam has more to fear fi’om the quiet 
 growth and the expanding influence of missionai-y institutions than 
 from any other opposing force. They find themselves suddenly con- 
 fronted with churches, colleges, schools, hospitals, Bibles in the ver- 
 nacular, and presses fi-om which flow such a stream of permanent and 
 periodical literature that they are fairly bewildered, and lament the 
 day that missionary agencies were admitted to the empire. It will, no 
 doubt, become more and more evident that God's purpose contem- 
 plates not simply the reformation of Oriental Christianty, but the 
 establishment of a basis of operations for that far more inspiring and 
 formidable task of which I forbear to sjieak here in any further 
 detail. 
 
 The paper of Canon Taylor, as coming from a Christian clergyman, 
 was remarkable for its exaltation of Mohammedanism, and in his sub- 
 sequent articles, published chiefly in the Fortnightly Review, he has 
 shown scant courtesy to missions which he has caricatured and mis- 
 represented. The main points of his position in the paper on Mo- 
 hammedanism may be briefly stated as follows : He contends that 
 
 Islam demands the consideration and esteem of the Christian church, 
 since it is in essence an imperfect or undeveloped Christianity, and 
 may bo regarded as preparatory to an advanced Christian faith. It 
 must, in his opinion, be looked upon as a religious position half way be- 
 tween .ludaism and Christianity, and being more cosmopolitan and 
 less exclusive than Judaism, and missionary in its activities, it helps on 
 in the general direction of Christianity wherever it wins converts from 
 heathen communities. In fact, it must be considered, according to his 
 judgment, as an advanced guard of Christian missions — not antagon- 
 istic to the gospel, but fighting at the outposts the same battle against 
 heathenism with weapons on the whole rather better and more effect- 
 ive than those wielded by Christianity. He contends that it leads 
 men from the darkness and degradation of pure heathenism, with its 
 superstitions and cruelties, to an intelligent conception of one God, and 
 gives them a simple and comprehensive view of His attributes and 
 dealings with men, and the duties He requires of them. It leads them, 
 moreover, into an attitude of human brotherhood with their fellow- 
 men, and brings them into league with each other under the inspira- 
 tion of a common religious faith. He contends that Islam contains 
 and teaches all the morality that heathen and barbarous nations could 
 be expected to receive and practice. It represents what he regards as 
 
ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 19 
 
 the high-water mark of practical morality and intelligible doctrine 
 among Oriental nations, and as such should be supported and encour- 
 aged by Christianity, hoping for better things further on, Islam, in 
 his opinion, is divine as far as it goes; it is at once a successful illustra- 
 tion and a happy outcome of the law of expediency, representing an 
 imperfect possibility, which is better practically than an impossible 
 ideal. In view of these considerations he advocates that Christianity 
 should join hands with Islam and establish a modus vivendi on the 
 basis of mutual concession and recognition. 
 
 This is an attractive position with a large class of minds who are 
 willing to rank the gospel as only one of a dozen religion?. With 
 them the divine origin of Christianity, its exclusive claims, its unique 
 glories, its adaptation and efficacy as the only religion Avhich saves, are 
 still open questions. What religion should be taught to men becomes, 
 therefore, a mere question of expediency and availability. An effect- 
 ive accommodation in the light of human wisdom is with them as ser- 
 viceable in religion as in anything else. The gospel may, therefore, 
 be manipulated into a compromise "with any other religion if it is a 
 workable scheme. 
 
 To this it may be replied, why does not this general plan Avhich 
 Canon Taylor advocates with reference to Islam hold also with refer 
 ence to the relations of Christianity to Judaism, or of Protestantism to 
 the Papacy, and more especially to the Greek and Armenian churches? 
 Why does it not apply in theory to the relations of Christianity to all 
 religions of the East? It should be noted here that Canon Taylor 
 seems to regard all reformation of existing Christianity in the Orient, 
 and even throughout the world, as a needless and wasteful exjiendi- 
 ture of money and labor, as he speaks ivith great disparagement of all at- 
 tempts to “ proselyte” from the Oriental Christian churches. He would 
 apparently leave apostate Christianity in its decay and degradation, 
 and extend the hand of brotherhood even to Islam. We must pause 
 to ask here — would Christ approve ? Would the Bible sanction ? The 
 simple answer may be given in the ivords of I’aul, “ If I or an angel 
 from heaven preach any other gospel than that ivhich I have preached 
 to you, let him be accursed.” God has given us the gospel ; it is the 
 duty of the church to preach and teach the religion of Christ and no 
 other. It is a mistake to regard Christianity as an impossible ideal, 
 nor can we consider Islam as a step towards Christianity. It is rather 
 an attitude of pronounced opposition to Christianity, and not to Chris- 
 tianity only, but to civilization and to all social and intellectual and 
 spiritual progress. 
 
 It is, however, the part both of Avisdom and courtesy to give 
 to Islam all the credit it deserves ; to acknoAvledge its influence in the 
 Avorld as an anti-heathen reform ; to place it high in the scale of his- 
 toric failures on the part of human Avisdom to establish a religion to 
 
20 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 supersede the gospel ; to acknowledge its skillful adaptation to an 
 Oriental constituency ; to recognize the truth which it contains and 
 the natural basis which it affords for a work of supernatural grace and 
 spiritual enlightenment through the revealed Word applied by the 
 Spirit ; to recognize every excellence of personal character which may 
 be found in individual Moslems of the more serious and devout type. 
 No one can do all this more easily than a Christian missionary living 
 in Moslem lands. When, however, it comes to the question of his 
 duty and responsibility as a religious teacher, every consideration of 
 loyalty and high obligation requires him to teach only the gospel of 
 his Divine Master. This is his supreme privilege, his sublime mission, 
 and his inexorable task. No Christian missionary is sent to the Mos- 
 lem world to establish a treaty of peace M'ith Islam. He is sent there 
 to carry the gospel of salvation to the perishing Moslem. He is God’s 
 messenger to a deluded people. The jireaching of the Cross, which, 
 of course, is an offense to the Moslem as it was to Jew and Gentile of 
 old, is the very business which brings him there. He must endeavor 
 to accomplish this delicate mission with tact and wisdom, and must be 
 patient and courteous and courageous ; but he has not the slightest 
 authority from God or man to depart from his instructions or enter 
 into any questionable compromises. He is an ambassador of the Cross, 
 not an apologist for the Crescent. 
 
 The question of method is, no doubt, a pressing one, and upon this 
 point Christian missionaries all over the world are seeking guidance 
 and would be grateful for light. One thing, however, is certain : no 
 method can be tolerated which lowers the standards of the gospel, or 
 compromises its truths, or places a human religion on the same plane 
 with the one divine religion ; nor would such a method be fruitful in 
 any results of solid or permanent value. 
 
 This is most assuredly the spirit of all our American missionaries in 
 the Orient. They look to the Christian churches at home to sustain 
 and encourage them in this theory of Christian missions to Mohamme- 
 dans. They hope for the sympathy and prayers of Christ’s people as 
 they endeavor to work on upon these lines. It is time for the Chris- 
 tian public of America to be intelligently and profoundly interested in 
 the religious development of Oriental nations, and especially in the 
 problem of the relation of Christianity to Islam and the duty of the 
 church of Christ to Moslems. Let us study this question in the light 
 of history and with a living sympathy in the welfare of 200,000,000 of 
 our race. Consider the desperate nature of the undertaking, and how 
 the honor of Christ is involved throughout the whole Eastern world. 
 Watch the developments of the Eastern question as one which holds in 
 focus the most burning problems of European diplomacy. Note 
 the rapid movements of European governments in taking possession 
 of the territory of Africa, more than one-half of which is now in their 
 
ISLAM A>’D CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 21 
 
 control. Watch the tightening grip of Christian civilization upon the 
 African slave trade, which is the most hideous scandal of our century 
 and is almost entirely the work of Arab Mohammedans. Take a broad 
 outlook over the field where are gathered the momentous interests in- 
 volved in this Mohammedan problem, and let us have the prayers of 
 Christendom in the interests of Christ’s kingdom and its blessed reign. 
 Within the memory of living men the Christian church was praying 
 for open doors in Asia and throughout the heathen world. To-day the 
 church is sending her missionaries through a thousand avenues into 
 the heart of heathendom. Let us have another triumph of prayer. 
 If the church of Christ will march around this mighty fortress of the 
 Mohammedan faith sounding her silver trumpets of prayer, it will not 
 be long before, by some intervention of divine power, it will be over- 
 thrown. Let it be one of the watchwords of our church in these clos- 
 ing decades of the 19th century, that Christ, the Child of the Orient 
 and the divine Heir of her tribes and kingdoms, shall possess His in- 
 heritance. The Moslem world shall be open to the gracious entrance 
 of the Saviour and the triumphs of the gospel. The spell of twelve 
 centuries shall be broken. That voice from the Arabian desert shall 
 no longer say to the church of the living God — thus far and no fur- 
 ther. The deep and "sad delusion which shadows the intellectual and 
 spiritual life of so many millions of our fellow-men shall be dispelled, 
 and tlie blessed life-giving power of Christ’s religion shall supplant the 
 dead forms and the outworn creed of Islam. 
 

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