by requiring all believers throughout the world to fast every Ramadan from sunrise to sunset? We confidently leave the answering of these questions to every thinking and right-minded Musalman.

3. The Kingdom of God.

When we considered the relation of Christianity to the Mosaic dispensation in this respect (ante p. 22), we noticed that the advent of Jesus Christ was a most important turning-point in the kingdom of God, which divested it of its preceding national character (involving also the discontinuance of the rite of circumcision) and which manifested it to be a kingdom truly spiritual and universal, addressing itself to man as such, without distinction of race, rank, or sex, and seeking, in a purely spiritual manner, without the use of compulsion or force, simply by precept and example, to rectify and sanctify all his relations to God and to his fellowcreatures. The kingdom of God, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, can exist independently of the political combinations, or the social institutions and domestic habits of any one nation; it can be established in a land without necessarily disturbing its temporal government; it is not of this world, and, unlike all others, it is a kingdom of truth. On account of its truly spiritual and specifically religious character, it is adapted to every condition and every clime in which men are found, neither courting nor refusing the favour of rulers. Its object is not to

extend the power of any one nation in the world, but to promote the glory of God and His reign in the heart of every man, in the bosom of every family, and in the people of every land. All who receive it, and submit to its influence, it cannot fail to unite in the bonds of a holy brotherhood, making them better, wiser, happier men here below, while preparing them for the services and enjoyments of the world to come. Now, if the assertion were correct that Muhammadanism is a higher revelation than Christianity, would it not necessarily have to show us the kingdom of God in a still higher and more spiritual light, in a form more adapted to the circumstances of the nations of the earth, and with still greater power to make men truly happy, wise, and righteous in this world, and to furnish them in death with a brighter hope of immortality and glory? It is well known to all persons really acquainted with both systems and their working, that the actual state of things is far otherwise.

To begin with the point last mentioned, namely, hope in death, it is admitted that every Christian man sees in the resurrection of Jesus Christ a pledge and guarantee of his own resurrection, and that to him death has so completely lost its terrors, that 'to die' is a 'falling asleep in Jesus' (see 1 Cor. xv; Acts vii. 60; 1 Thess. iv. 14); not a loss, but a most desirable gain (Phil. i. 21; Rev. xiv. 13). Nor do we deny, that although most Muslims