i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEJAZ 567 



Moslem notion that their dry and barren literature is 

 the most perfect that can be conceived, it is heartily to 

 be desired that a door should be opened to the circulation 

 of Christian literature. The good to be effected by a 

 study of the Bible is not to be measured by the number 

 of possible converts to Christianity. It would be an 

 enormous advance if the reading and thinking part of 

 the Arabs knew enough of our religion and its documents 

 to conquer their present absurd idea that the only reason 

 why we are not Moslems is crass and stupid ignorance 

 of Arabic and the Koran. At present, if one shows 

 any interest in Arabic, the people fancy that one is well 

 on the way to be a Mohammedan. Most of them know 

 almost nothing of their own faith except a few formulas 

 and prayers ; but they take it for granted that the 

 stupendous miracle of the Koran, a book which no human 

 intellect could have produced, must convince every 

 one who is able to read it. You testify to the unity 

 of God so I have often been told what is easier 

 than to add that Mohammed is his apostle, and secure 

 your entrance to heaven ? For though that is not the 

 teaching of the Prophet, all Mohammedans feel sure 

 of heaven, and the moral obligations of their religion 

 cost them little thought. If you reply that you are not 

 satisfied that the Koran makes any necessary addition 

 to the previous revelations which Mohammed himself 

 accepted as divine, you are exhorted only to accept 

 Islam, and then God will help you to see the perfections 

 of his book. If you attempt to contrast the Christian 

 laws of morality with those of Islam, the most liberal 

 answer you can expect is that the ordinances of Islam 

 suit the conditions of the Arabian people. And that, 

 no doubt, is true, in the sense that Mohammed himself 

 largely accommodated his precepts to the natural pre 

 judices of the Arabian mind. But, on the other hand, 

 the Koran is largely responsible for the present slowness 

 of the Arab to accept even the most needful reformations. 



