accepted as true, certain teachings as to Jesus which showed that this statement of his humanity was not a full and adequate expression of his person. While being man, he was yet 'His Word', the Word of God; and this expression takes our thoughts back to those others which we have already considered, in which the Spirit is spoken of as proceeding 'from the command (or Word) of God'.

The Spirit is the embodiment, so to speak, of God's Word. This Word is not a mere command, for it is conveyed into Mary. Jesus was this Word. He was not born merely by the action or in virtue of the Word, but he was the very Word itself conveyed into Mary.

Further, this Word is identified with the 'Spirit proceeding from Himself'. The expression wa Ruhun minhu is but feebly translated by the words, 'Spirit proceeding from Himself'. The original is a poetical form whereby in a most emphatic manner the Spirit is identified with the very Spirit of God Himself. Jesus is 'His Word which He conveyed into Mary, and His own very Spirit'.

The teaching against which Muhammad protested, was the calling of Jesus, who while he was man, was also God's Word and Spirit, by the name 'Son', because he associated with the idea of sonship those polytheistic ideas according to which the deity might enter into physical relations with mankind, and beget children. It is for this reason that the words are added, 'Far be it from His glory that He should have a son.'

Our object, however, in this place is not to attempt to give any statement of the teaching of the Qur'an on the

Person of the Messiah, Jesus, but to study those passages which speak of the Spirit, that we may see what the words of the Qur'an imply in their relation to Muhammad's doctrine of the Nature of God; and for this purpose they have now been sufficiently considered.

It remains to try to sum up what we have found to be Muhammad's teaching and see whether we can form any general conclusions.

There is but one, the Living God, and there is none other than He. He is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, the First and the Last. He can be known by mankind, but not comprehended, for He is the Seen and the Hidden. He is not some indefinite Power or Force, which expresses itself, or finds its self-manifestation in the world, for the world is His creation, the work of His hands. He acts as a Personal Being, creating and ruling the world, revealing Himself to man according to His good-pleasure through His Word, from which and through which 'the Spirit', His own Spirit, manifests itself.

On the Nature of the Divine Existence, or the mode of it, Muhammad has nothing clear and definite to say, and it is at this point that his words on the Spirit come in to assist us.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of these words for the formation of a full Qur'anic doctrine of God, though, as we have already said more than once, the teachings on this question are not on the surface, but are rather of the nature of implications.

We may even go further and say that apparently Muhammad had no conception of what many of his