it was true. We desire to impress on him that it is a certain fact that any honest inquiring Muhammadan to-day can form from the perusal of the Christian records of the New Testament, a more accurate idea of what Jesus taught than it was possible for Muhammad to do, seeing that he had not that record before his eyes.

Further, we must insist on the fact that Christianity is not an attack on Muhammadanism. It is the Muhammadan who is attacking and the Christian who is defending. It is therefore not the part of the Christian to show that Muhammadanism is false. If Muhammadanism cannot on historical grounds prove that Christianity as taught by the Christian Church, is contrary to the teachings of Jesus, then it is its own disproof. For it maintains that what Jesus taught was true, but that what the Christian Church holds is false. It is for the Muhammadan to show wherein the Christian Church has claimed for Jesus what He did not claim for Himself. He must not seek to prove from the Qur'an that the claims which Jesus made for Himself and the claims which Christians to-day make on His behalf are irreconcilable. If this is to be attempted, it must be attempted on historical and critical grounds.

Before passing on, we desire to note that Muhammadan theology has appropriated the words 'Mu'min' (believer) and 'Islam' (submission in thought, word, and deed to the revealed will

of God), and has so specialized them, that it appears to be a matter of extreme difficulty for Muhammadans generally to realize that there are others who can justly claim to be 'Mu'minun', and to practise 'Islam'. Indeed many Muhammadans appear almost to think that all who reject Muhammadanism are living an irreligious life. And because of this preconception, they look with misgiving and alarm on any proposal that they should study and discuss Christianity. They have no desire to coquet with irreligion. It is, therefore, perhaps not out of place to point out that the alternative between Muhammadanism and Christianity is not the alternative between a religious and an irreligious life. The Qur'an freely recognizes that there were true believers (Mu'minun) before Muhammad's day. The whole of Suratu'l-Mu'min (xl) shows that all who ever professed the belief in one God, are to be regarded as having been Mu'minun. In verse 29th of this Sura we read,

And a man of the family of Pharaoh, who was a believer (Mu'min), but hid his faith, said . . .

The whole Sura bears out the claim we make. In Suratu'l-A'raf (vii) 73,

Said the chiefs of the people, puffed up with pride, to those who were esteemed weak, even to those of them who believed . . .