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LECTURE IV.

THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM—ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

IN considering the value of any system of religion and its claims to the allegiance of the human race, it is not enough to examine into its external evidences, if it has any, or to inquire about the beauty of its tenets or the loftiness of its philosophy. However much or however little of truth any religion may incorporate,—if its results (when fairly carried into practice) are bad, destructive to what is noblest in our common humanity, or productive of bigotry, intolerance and ignorance,—then it cannot be regarded as the revelation of the GOD of Love, of Justice and of Mercy. "The tree is known by its fruit." And in judging Islam by its practical results and its effect on the character of its followers, we are doing it no injustice, but rather inquiring into one very important branch of its evidences.

We now therefore proceed to ask what kind of influence Islam has exercised in the past and still exercises to-day on the lives of those who profess it. The question may be regarded from the point of view of family life, of public or political life, of