for GOD commanded him to do so." The fact that it is a moral impossibility for GOD to sanction, much less to command, the commission of distinct breaches of the eternal Moral Law, is quite beyond their comprehension, and the enunciation of such a theory strikes them as blasphemous, because it contradicts, in their opinion, the doctrine of the Omnipotence of the Deity! "Two things," says Immanuel¹ Kant, "fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more frequently and perseveringly reflection. busies itself therewith,—the star-strewn Heaven above me, and the Moral Law within me." But so far are the Muslims from feeling the importance of the testimony which the human spirit bears to the character and being of its Creator, that neither in the Arabic itself nor in any other Muhammadan language is there a word which properly expresses what we mean by conscience.²

They believe that sin is a violation of the arbitrary commands of GOD; that what is wrong,

Sin.

because prohibited, in this world will be in many cases right in the next. For example, the drinking of wine is prohibited in the Qur'an,¹ and is regarded as a great sin on earth, yet in Paradise one of the many carnal delights promised to "the faithful" is unlimited indulgence in this pleasure.² Again, there are some few indications that Muhammad deemed a very great excess of unchastity a sin³ on earth, but he nevertheless in the Qur'an encouraged his followers to contend for their faith by promising them a practically unlimited indulgence in that vileness before the very Throne of GOD in heaven.⁴

How can people who represent GOD as not only not condemning such practices, but even approving

Moral Obliquity of view.

of them so much as to prepare such pleasures for the perpetual enjoyment of His faithful servants in Paradise,—how can they possibly be said to believe in His Holiness, or to understand that He