was mental, yet real. And so in heaven all the joys described so graphically in sensuous language will be enjoyed in truth, yet not corporeally, but so to speak intellectually, or it may be said spiritually, much as a man in a dream enjoys eating and drinking and caressing his beloved.

But, as we have said, for the purpose before us at present it is not necessary to decide what is the true teaching of the Qur'an on this point, and it is permissible to accept the highest, noblest, and purest interpretation which it is possible to put upon the words in which Muhammad describes the joys of heaven, and which include as the chief joy the vision of the face of God.

To open any investigation as to the respective claims of Christianity and Muhammadanism with a consideration of the theological doctrines or dogmas which characterize these two religions is to take up the subject from the wrong end. These theological dogmas, and the systems worked out by the theologians on each side, are but the attempts of the human mind to grasp and express, in terms of human consciousness and human experience, the metaphysical truths concerning the nature of God, and His manner of action in relation to mankind. They are not the essentials of religion. Religion, whether Christian or Muhammadan, existed before these systems had been developed, and will continue to exist (if the religion be truly of God) though these should

change; for religion consists in a certain attitude of the soul to God—an attitude, according to both Christianity and Muhammadanism, to be assumed in self-surrender to Him in accordance with what is believed to be the expression of His self-revelation; and one's theological beliefs must depend for their foundation on what this self-revelation teaches and implies. The ultimate question then which arises between Christianity and Muhammadanism is not, which theological system appears to be most logical, or which appears to give the most reasonable explanation of our experiences in the domain of religion. Both Muhammadan and Christian theologians readily admit that spiritual truths concerning the deeper realities of religion, especially those which concern the nature of the Deity, the manner of His self-subsistence, and the mode of His relation to the world of nature as well as to mankind, must far transcend the human reason. And they alike claim that these do not form the basis of man's belief in God, or the necessary ground on which he takes up the attitude of self-surrender to Him. As we cannot know God unless He reveal himself to us, we must judge and decide on the truth or untruth of this or that particular doctrine or dogma by its agreement with what we have, on other grounds, come to accept as the revelation of God, and not conversely. We may be certain, it is true, that in the final investigation between the opposing