misstatements in his favour. What hollow and undeserved praise has, e.g., been lavished on the Arabian Prophet by reason of his retirement to a cave on Mount Hira! To such a degree these fancies have been repeated that they have become a widespread superstition. I trust that the advocates of fairness and justice, whom I claim as colleagues, will feel beholden to me for having reduced their exaggerating cavestory to its proper historical dimension.

I have not concealed, throughout the work, that my standpoint, in forming a judgment, is that of Christianity. All civilised and well-informed men who have impartially studied the subject agree in this, that, as a whole, Christianity is far superior to Islam, or to any other existing religion. It further admits of not any doubt, that only by the light of the higher religion can the lower be rightly estimated just as in nature, in science, and in art, the higher development throws the necessary light on the less developed forms. In judging anything, a standard is required to guide our judgment. I have not heard of any one having discovered a worthier standard fur judging the claims of Mohammed than is given in the Person of Christ ; or the claims of Islam, than genuine Christianity. Any one who declines to judge the lower religion by the higher one, rejects the only standard by which he can hope to arrive at a correct and sure judgment.

When I lived amongst the Mohammedans as a Christian Missionary, I, in dealing with them, naturally felt it an incumbent duty to seek to discover all the bright spots, all that is true and good, in their religion, all that might form a bond of agreement between us, and a starting-point for a still higher advance. But it was no less a plain duty to have an open eye for all the defects and faults inherent to the system, in order to be able to point them out to its votaries, and thus to help them to a just sense of the possibility and necessity of rising to something far higher and better. No one more than a Missionary to the Mohammedans

must see how indispensable it is for him to form a correct estimate as well of the bright as the dark side of Islam, and to meet its professors in a spirit of fairness and benevolence. The Moslems deserve our esteem as fellowworshippers with us of the Great God of the Universe ; and they need our heartfelt sympathy, our loving help, as unhappily deprived, by the Islamic veil, of a full sight of the One Mediator between God and man, the only Saviour of sinners. In this spirit I found it quite possible to have friendly intercourse with them, which in several cases ripened into actual friendship.

My practical acquaintance with Mohammedans began over forty years ago, when I held the post of Professor of Hebrew and Arabic in the Church Missionary College at Fourah Bay, near Freetown, on the west coast of Africa. I often visited a Mohammedan village in the immediate vicinity, and was on such friendly footing with its spiritual head as to be often invited to accompany him to the mosque, and to be present during their service. In Egypt, in Palestine, and in European Turkey, I had ample opportunity, during more than a quarter of a century, of still further extending my acquaintance with Mohammedanism and the Mohammedans. I had the pleasure of counting amongst my friends some of all the classes of Moslem society, from the highest to the lowest. We must not look for perfection in fallen man anywhere, but I have met with truth-loving, honest men, and fine natural characters, amongst the Mussulmans of my acquaintance. If one has the opportunity of an insight into men's inner life and religious aspirations, one may still be disposed to say, with Tertullian, Anima humana naturaliter Christiana. Man as such, no matter of what country or nationality, has a natural sensorium and capacity for the Divine verities of Christianity. Often I said to myself, in becoming acquainted with God-fearing, openhearted Moslems, ' What noble Christian characters these men will become, if once they receive Christ!' But the