222 THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

one which we cannot shirk without incurring serious responsibility. We must not be content to leave them alone in their darkness and bigotry. If we would, we cannot altogether do so, brought in contact with the great Muhammadan world as we are at the present time. The Queen rules over 57,000,000 of them 1 in India; and our trade and political relations with Egypt, Zanzibar, Turkey and Persia, force upon us as Englishmen the question what attitude we should adopt with reference to their religion. We cannot favour it without being false to our own, for the two faiths are opposed to one another as light and darkness. Nor, if we wish to be neutral, will the Muslims permit us to be so. Many of them are most zealous for their creed; and we are aware that this present year has seen their missionaries making ready to land on 2 the shores of England, for the purpose of propagating their faith in our own land, and of summoning us benighted Christians from the darkness of the "Times of 3 Ignorance" to the full light of the Qur'an. Just as at Rome in the first

1 Vide Government of India Census Report for 1891.
2 The latest news, however, is to the effect that, on learning what a fiasco the reported Muhammadan movement in Liverpool was, the Muslim missionaries who were to have come to England have deferred their coming until they have prepared a new English version of the Qur'an to bring with them (!!!)
3 This is the phrase used by Muslims to denote the period in the history of any nation before its conversion to Islam.
THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM. 223

century, so now among ourselves there exist men, priding themselves on their enlightenment and

Modern Antitypes
of Ancient Follies.

liberality of sentiment, who are ready to call themselves now Agnostics, now Buddhists, and now Muhammadans, as their prototypes worshipped Isis and Serapis, or followed Epicurus or Plato, according as the fashion of the day might lead. These men may reasonably be expected,—for a time at least,—if not to profess Islam, at least to favour it as an opponent to Christianity—a thing which perhaps in reality constitutes the great charm of any new religious craze in their eyes. If we ask what our duty to Muslims is, our Divine Lord gives us a very clear answer: "Go ye1 and make all nations disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Christ died for them as much as for the heathen and for ourselves, and to us Christians is committed the ministry of reconciliation, the sacred duty of calling the followers of the Arabian Antichrist to the foot of the cross of the crucified Redeemer, Whose atoning death they deny and Whose Godhead they blaspheme.

Our duty to Muhammadans is clear; yet how little we Christians have done or are doing to bring

Carelessness
on the part
 of Christians.

them to Christ! Arabia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan can hardly as yet be said to have been even touched by Christian Missionary enterprise. In Persia the work is still in its infancy. Some

1 Matt. xxviii. 19.br>