452 HISTORICAL POSITION OF MOHAMMEDANISM. [BK. III.

vengeance for sins of an unusually provoking character (Luke xiii. 1-5). It would certainly require an unwarrantable amount of hardihood to affirm that there was such a difference between Eastern and Western Christendom, in their religious faithfulness and faultiness, as to account for the fact that in the seventh century Palestine and Egypt and Syria were trampled under foot by Islam, and in the eighth the sturdy sons of Gaul and Germany, by their glorious victory near Tours, rolled back for ever the surging tide of Mussulman invasion. It is not very rational to suppose that God subjected the Eastern Christians to Mohammedan oppression, because they were not so faithful to the Gospel as they ought to have been; and that He raised up and prospered the Mohammedan oppressors, though they sought with all their might to degrade and repress the evangelical religion which it was His special aim to preserve and to protect.

Nor is it a more fortunate idea, in seeking to fasten on Providence the paternity of Islam, to credit the latter with a Divine destiny to prepare the Pagan nations for the adoption of Christianity. For this is opposed by the hard fact that, throughout the thirteen centuries of its existence, it not only has never favoured, but actually prohibited and prevented, as far as it could, all its votaries from embracing the Faith of the Gospel; and that as a system for the special purpose of preparing the way for Christianity, it would at any rate have made its appearance 600 years too late.

All these attempts to discover in the existence of Islam a Divine teleology, and to represent it as a necessary link in the chain of Providential actions and institutions, for the good of mankind, are opposed by the decidedly anti-Christian character both of its essential nature and its historical manifestation. 1

1 A view entirely opposed to the one here propounded is expressed in a work which only came into my hands when my manuscript was already fully prepared for the press. I refer to the published Lectures on Mohammed and Mohammedanism, by R. Bosworth Smith, 1874. Mr. Smith tells us that his object in writing the work was 'to render some measure of that justice to Mohammed and to his religion which has been all too long denied to them' (p. 206). Accordingly he has to be looked upon not so much in the light of a judge, as rather in that of an advocate. This role he keeps up throughout his book. The Koran is to him 'a miracle indeed' (182); Mohammed 'the greatest of all Re-
SEC. I.] THE PROVIDENTIAL THEORY INVITING. 453

It can indeed hardly surprise us that a theory which would eliminate so jarring an element, so perplexing an enigma from history, should have found favour with many. The thoughtful mind finds it more gratifying to discover in history what is harmonious, than what is discordant. To the devout believer, in particular, it may seem more God-honouring to recognise in so important an historical factor as Islamism rather a work of God than an institution opposed to His will, rather an ally and helper to Christianity, than

formers' (60); 'too great to be designated merely as "The Great"' (233); 'half a Christian and half a Pagan,' but the better half, 'uniting in a marvellous degree the peculiar excellencies of them both' (235); in short, 'a very Prophet of God' (238). Whilst thus extolling Mohammed in terms which no sober judge can indorse, 'the author of these Lectures has thought it right mainly to dwell on that aspect of the character of Christ, which is admitted by Mussulmans as well as Christians, by foes as well as friends' (Preface x). But does not the question suggest itself to every reader: Is the character of Christ admitted by Mussulmans, His true character, or do not these Lectures rather place before us, as a fictitious Mohammed, so also a fictitious Christ? It is a mere illusion of the confident author to suppose that, by this method, he has discovered 'a basis for an ultimate agreement' between real Mohammedanism and real Christianity.

Under the spell of this illusion, and evidently knowing Islamism mainly from books and from hearsay, Mr. Bosworth Smith indulges the visionary hope that these two religions will one day agree in brotherly harmony, 'each rejoicing in the success of the other, and each supplying the other's wants, in a generous rivalry for the common good of humanity.' To realise this vision, they will have to keep within 'their respective spheres: the one the religion of the best parts of Asia and Africa, the other of Europe and America' (232). He does not say, what is to become of the worst parts of Asia and Africa. Apparently they are to content themselves indefinitely with Paganism. But what must we think of the Christianity of a writer who thus wishes to restrict the 'all power in heaven and on earth,' claimed by Christ, and who indirectly stultifies his Master's solemn command, 'Go ye into all the world, and make disciples of all the nations'? (Mark xvi. 15, Matt. xxviii. 18, 19); what of his philanthropy, when, after professing that 'Christianity is immeasurably superior to Mohammedanism' (106), he yet composedly resigns himself to the perpetual domination of Islamism and Heathenism over Asia and Africa, and even expects the Christian to 'rejoice' in such a future?

It is truly surprising that a scholar, such as this author, did not perceive the many self-contradictions in which his hazardous assumption that Mohammed was 'a very Prophet of God,' could not fail to involve him. He flatters himself with the discovery that Islam is 'not an anti-Christian, but merely a non-Christian faith' (51). But how does this discovery tally with Christ's positive declaration, 'He that is not with me is against me'? (Matt. xii. 30.) The learned author found it convenient to omit all reference to this passage, whilst laying an exclusive and one-sided stress on Mark ix. 40. Can a non-Christian religion, springing up in the face of Christianity, and with the undeniable intention of displacing it, be anything but anti-Christian? Mr. Smith lays great stress on