whom also he made the worlds;' and St. Peter writes to the believers, 'Ye were redeemed . . . with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake' (1 Pet. i. 19, 20). It is therefore plain beyond contradiction, that whatever may be the foundations of Islam, it does not rest either on any particular prophecy in the gospel respecting Muhammad and his teaching, or on any deficiency in the Christian religion which it was required to supply.

If, in order to escape this conclusion, any Muhammadans, unacquainted with the history of the New Testament text, should assert that our version of the gospel is not the original one, but has been corrupted by the Christians after Muhammad's appearance, in order thus to suppress one of the most important testimonies to his divine commission, it only remains to say, in reply, that a number of learned Muhammadans, e.g. Imam Muhammad, Isma'il Bukhari, Shah Wali Allah, Imam Fakhru'd, Din Razi, and others, down to the learned Syed Ahmad, our own Indian contemporary, have already expressed their conviction that the gospel now in circulation is still the same as that used before the days of Muhammad; that from the ancient manuscripts still preserved in the great libraries of Christian

lands, this is so evident as to require no further proof; and that, consequently, it is unfair of Muhammadans still to bring forward this old assertion that the sacred writings have been corrupted, unless they establish the charge by positive proofs, to do which, if they can, we would here publicly challenge them. For so long as they fail to prove this charge, it is only just to pass it over as baseless and unworthy of notice.

VIII

MUHAMMAD AND ISLAM, INSTEAD OF ORIGINATING IN CHRISTENDOM, AS CHRISTIANITY HAD CAST ITS FIRST ROOTS AMONG THE ISRAELITES, SPRANG FROM THE MIDST OF IDOLATERS IN ARABIA

THERE can be no doubt that 'the whole earth is the Lord's' (Psalm xxiv. 1), and that 'He can do whatsoever He pleaseth' (Psalm cxv. 3); but it is no less incontestable, that for all He does He has the best and wisest of reasons. We have already recognized the divine wisdom of first sending the Law of Moses to Israel, in preparation for the perfect and more spiritual religion of Christ (ante p. 9); and it must appear perfectly consistent with the supreme wisdom of God to have introduced the Saviour when and where He was expected, and to have laid the first foundation of the church of the future where the ground had been carefully prepared for it. So, likewise, if God had willed to supersede