power of Christianity, manifested by its rapid spread in the world, notwithstanding the most cruel and protracted persecutions, and without the use of worldly weapons; secondly, to the promises or prophecies contained in the Old Testament itself respecting a coming Messiah, and a higher stage of religion; thirdly, to the fact that Christianity actually sprang from the bosom of the Jewish religion, the ground having there been prepared for it by those prophecies; fourthly, to the well-attested miracles performed by the Author of Christianity in proof of His divine mission; and fifthly, to the actual progress evident in the religious teaching of the New Testament, as compared with that of the Old. This latter point was illustrated by six doctrinal subjects, three of them having particular reference to God and divine things, namely, the revelation of God Himself, His worship, and His kingdom; and the other three to our intercourse with our fellow-men, namely, retaliation, slavery, and the treatment of the female sex, with special regard to polygamy and divorce. Respecting all these six subjects, we found the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ so much more suited to man's deepest wants and loftiest aspirations, so much more spiritual and mature than the law of Moses, that we felt fully justified in regarding them, together with the four preceding subjects of consideration, as conclusive proofs of the belief of both Muslims and Christians, that Christianity is a higher

stage of the one true religion of God than the religion of the ancient Jews.

The next great object of our investigation was the mutual relation between Christianity and Muhammadanism, or the question whether the Qur'an was as much a fulfilment and further development of the gospel, as we had found this to be a fulfilment and further development of the Mosaic law. While all parties, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, agree that the Mosaic or Israelitish religion was a gift from God, and while Christians and Muslims likewise agree in the belief that the Christian religion was a still nobler and greater gift from God, the Muhammadans stand alone in asserting, and the Jews and Christians unite in denying, that Islam is the greatest of all the gifts of God, nobler and higher than both Judaism and Christianity. But without permitting ourselves to be swayed in our investigation by this state of prevailing opinions, we examined the question upon its own merits; for our object was to ascertain whether there really were valid reasons to bear out the Muhammadan assertion. In order, therefore, to avoid all appearance of unfairness or partiality one way or another, we conducted our investigation of the relation between Islam and Christianity on exactly the same points, and in the same order, as we had previously examined the relation between Christianity and Judaism. Thus we had to do, not merely with opinions and doctrines