important, and apparently contradictory truths are here brought into beautiful harmony, namely, on the one hand that man is not saved by his own good works, but that God alone, as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, saves man, and brings him to eternal blessedness; and on the other hand, that a man thus saved by grace alone must yet not lead a life of carelessness and sin, because purity, veracity, love, and all virtues naturally result from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as good fruit naturally grows upon good trees. Now if we ask what further light the Qur'an throws upon these important subjects, the answer is, that it knows nothing whatever of a Father in heaven who 'so loved the world that he gave His only-begotten Son that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life;' that it knows nothing of a divine Saviour who took upon Himself our flesh, that in a perfectly human life He might defeat Satan in all his temptations; and that by His meritorious death He might become a sacrifice for our sins, and deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage; and that it knows nothing of the abiding Comforter or Holy Spirit who fills the hearts of believers with light, joy, and peace, and enables them to live a life of holiness and usefulness in this world, and to become meet for the blessedness and glory of the world to come. Instead of pointing out this divine way of salvation more clearly than the gospel, the

Qur'an leaves man again to the hopeless task of meriting salvation by his own works, such as public prayers, alms, fasting and pilgrimages, and thereby places itself upon a level with many heathen religions, e.g. with Brahmanism and Buddhism, which recommend the very same means to obtain eternal happiness. It is therefore a fact of which there can be no doubt with the well-informed, that the doctrine of God and His relation to man, especially in man's salvation, not only receives no further development in the Qur'an, but that the development to which it had already attained in the gospel is given up, and a return made to views which had been entertained for centuries before Christ came into the world. From this it must appear evident to every one who is not blinded by prejudice, that on whatever else the claim of Islam may rest to being the highest and last revelation, it cannot be its doctrine of God.

2. The Service and Worship of God.

Above, where we compared the Jewish and the Christian religion (ante p. 18), we found that the latter was superior to the former because it disjoined, the service of God from many outward ceremonies and burdensome rules concerning times and places, thus making it a service 'in spirit and in truth', and because it insists upon a living faith in the divinely-appointed Saviour, instead of those ritual observances, and upon a complete renewal or regeneration of heart and life. Here, therefore, it becomes our duty to