332 REV. S. M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S., ON THE WAHABIS: 
either religious, moral, social, or intellectual. The only advantage 
it has been to the world is that it is a monotheistic religion. 
“There is one God and Mohammed is His prophet.” That is 
something that we owe to Mohammedanism, and it is that which 
gives to it a great force against idolatry of all kinds—in fact, it 
has been believed to have been a scourge sent by God to purge 
idolatrous Christendom as well as other idolatrous peoples; but 
the state of it, morally, socially, and intellectually, is most 
deplorable; and it is generally supposed that cholera, which is the 
annual scourge of Egypt and other Eastern countries, has its 
source in Mecca, where thousands of pilgrims from Northern 
Africa assemble every year, and where the sanitary arrangements 
are absolutely nil. The wells arc choked with filth; and is it any 
wonder that it is the centre and seat of perpetual cholera and 
plagues, such as arise from filth and insanitary conditions? This 
is the state in which uncontrolle! Mohammedanism has left these 
countries; and it would be the greatest blessing to society in that 
part of the world if the Christian countries (including Egypt 
under its present régime) were to combine and say that these 
pilgrimages have been going on too long; they are a danger to 
society and ought te be pat down with a strong hand. 
Mr. Martin L. Rouss.—I quite agree with Professor Hull that 
these pilgrimages ought to be put down. Three or four years ago 
there was such a terrible outbreak of cholera at Mecca, and such a 
vast number of pilgrims died there, that the corpses tainted the 
air too terribly for anyone to dare go near to bury them, The 
people went on dying and poisoning one another until a large body 
of Turkish soldiery was sent and compelled to bury the dead. 
I think it is a very remarkable fact that whereas Christianity is 
taunted by sceptics with having split itself up into so many sects, 
we find just the same process of the human mind going on in the 
false religion of Mohammed; for here we are told that in the 
eighteenth century ‘‘ over one hundred and fifty heretical Moslem 
sects are enumerated by writers of that period.” Again, whereas 
it is charged against the denominations of Christianity, falsely, 
save in the case of the Roman Catholics, that they all think that 
their own sect alone can be saved, it is here stated that one 
of the traditional sayings of Mohammed authenticated by the 
Wahabis was, “My people will be divided into seventy-three 
sects, every one of which will go to hell except one sect.” And 
