anxiety and be of good cheer'; and, consequently, has nothing to do with the Arabic root 'hamada' or 'hammada', to praise; so that, if in the days of Muhammad there should have been an Arabic manuscript of the gospel in which the term 'paraclete' was rendered by 'ahmad' (a supposition which has never been proved), this would have been a wrong translation, arising either from want of knowledge or good faith.¹

Independently, however, of this, another circumstance at once decides that these promises can never have referred to Muhammad; for in Acts i. 4-5, we read that the Holy Ghost, or Paraclete, was to come to the apostles 'not many days hence', and that till then they were 'not to depart from Jerusalem.' But every one knows that the Apostles received the Holy Ghost ten days after Christ's ascension (see Acts ii), and that they had all been long dead when Muhammad arose, six hundred years later.

Not only does the gospel contain no prophecy of the coming of an ahmad, or any one else, to supersede Christ, but it claims for itself so absolute a character as the only true light, and the only right way to God, that there is no room left for any rival system to fill, and no possibility of a higher religion yet to come. Accordingly, we read in Matt. xi, that when John the Baptist, on a certain occasion, sent a deputation

to Christ to ask Him, 'Art thou He that cometh, or look we for another?' He, instead of encouraging any such hopes of a future prophet, plainly told them, 'Go your way and tell John the things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me.' And soon after He added, 'All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' On another occasion He said, 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him. He that believeth on Him is not judged: He that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil' (John iii. 16-19). And, again, 'I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but