564 MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



prehend its completeness now, and therefore we cannot realize 

 its beauty ; and because we cannot, we shrink from it. It may 

 be that decided and severe condemnation of a transgressor is not 

 so inconsistent with the proper Christian spirit as we sometimes 

 think it is. 



Whatever we decide about it, the mischievous Mohamads will 

 go on making trouble for everybody in Africa, until the nobler 

 influences of a truer civilization than that they so poorly repre- 

 sent, at second hand, have raised the victims of their unscrupulous 

 cupidity above a price that they can offer, and they are com- 

 pelled to retire before the growing brightness of a light they have 

 not sought to kindle with their Koran, and could not if they 

 would. They have extended their influence over vast extents of 

 African territory, and have preserved everywhere their distinc- 

 tive customs, dress and religion. The Koran is their oracle; 

 out of its pages they draw all their decisions, from the most 

 trivial to the gravest. But they have not seemed concerned to 

 diffuse their religion among the natives of the country, and old 

 Mohamad bin Saleh, who with all his villany was a devout 

 Mohammedan and quite intelligent, assured Dr. Livingstone 

 that no attempt had ever been made to proselytize the Africans. 

 The Koran is never translated ; the Arabs never feel themselves 

 called on to propagate their doctrines : they are only traders. 

 It is idle, therefore, for any traveller, even one so honorably 

 associated with African exploration as Captain Burton, to inti- 

 mate that they would be better missionaries for Africa than 

 Christians, only because their Koran would not bring them in 

 conflict with the prevailing polygamous custom of the country. 

 The religion which accommodates itself to the prejudices of a 

 people will not more easily obtain authority over them. 



The absolute antagonism of Christianity for every unholy 

 disposition of man, bringing it face to face with all his preju- 

 dices, has been a conspicuous element of its power. Such is 

 human nature, that the most radical measures are the most 

 effectual in their reformations ; and the remarkable indifference 

 of the African to the creed of the Arab Mohammedan, while he 

 is always curious about Christianity, is an illustration, at hand, 

 of the folly of the idea of modifying the requirements of the 

 gospel to suit the particular conditions of particular communities, 



