their native deserts, like an irresistible mountain torrent, and conquering in rapid succession all the surrounding countries! As far as the conquests of these armies extended, so far Islamism was made the religion of the state; and although the conquered people were, in most cases, not actually forced to embrace the religion of the conquerors, yet they were put under so many disabilities, and had frequently to suffer such cruel oppressions, while the means of keeping up their faith and learning were greatly curtailed (e.g. as early as the reign of the Khalifa 'Umar 4000 Christian churches are reported to have been destroyed), that it is not very surprising if thousands of worldly-minded, ignorant, and down-trodden people could be found ready, during the first period of confusion and fright, and afterwards from time to time to purchase the privileges and power of the ruling class, by parting with the religion of their fathers. So it came to pass that the armies of Muslim warriors, proved successful missionaries, or propagators of their religion, and that in course of time, after many countries had been subjected to Muhammadan rulers and laws, their converts amounted to millions and tens of millions.

But these many and great victories of the Muslim armies, and the consequent wide spread of Islam, for which they had thus to pave the way, cannot prove the divine character of the religion of the

Qur'an. They are by no means miraculous. General history makes us acquainted with similar and even greater military exploits; e.g. Alexander the Great, who was an idolater, and started from a country much smaller than Arabia, subjugated in nine years almost as large a territory as the Khalifas in ninety, and wherever he went he spread the Greek language and manners with remarkable success.

Besides, let it be observed, that although the Muslims exercised for successive centuries a vast amount of power to subserve the interests and spread of their religion, yet they did not so far succeed with the Christians under their dominion as the Christians had succeeded with the heathen; for whilst in Europe not a single community remains adhering to its original heathenism, the Christians still living in Muhammadan countries, such as Turkey, Syria, Persia, and Egypt, amount to many millions. It is therefore an established fact, and not a mere opinion on which people may differ, that whilst the number of Christians so rapidly increased as now vastly to surpass that of the Jews, the number of Muslims, far from in like degree exceeding that of the Christians, is very much less.

It is likewise a fact of history, that scarcely had the Jews rejected Christianity, when those fearful judgements broke in upon their nation, which deprived them of their fatherland, and scattered them, as poor despised exiles, all over the world.