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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Moslems, nearly a hundred Jews, a hun- 

 dred are Greeks, fifteen or twenty come 

 from Persia, several come from India, 

 a group comes from Bulgaria, and one 

 comes from the Desert of Gobi. This is 

 a geographical society, so you know ex- 

 actly where the Desert of Gobi is. I 

 found that the students in the college last 

 year represented 214 cities, towns, and 

 villages. Now when the forces that are 

 at work in those villages are touched by 

 the forces that are represented by men 

 who have but a year's study, or four 

 years', or perhaps ten years' study in the 

 college, you begin to appreciate the power 

 that lies in such an institution. 



Then the religious problem is still more 

 interesting. You see this is a Christian 

 college. It is a Christian college in the 

 same sense that our own colleges in this 

 country are Christian institutions. We 

 are there to share with the youth of all 

 races and all religions the Christian ideal. 

 We are not there to proselytize or to 

 cram religion down their throats, but we 

 are there to share the best influences that 

 have come to us, the best things in the 

 laboratory, the best things in the class- 

 room, the best things in the religious 

 forces that we have ourselves enjoyed. 

 Those young Moslems are proud men, as 

 they stand for their religion as a great 

 religion, and you must not sneer at this 

 religion. The way in which to overcome 

 Islam is to fulfill the great principle of 

 the founder of Christianity when he 

 said, "I came not to destroy, but to 

 fulfill." 



THE GREAT FRIEND OE THE PROPHET 



You know something of the early his- 

 tory of Islam ; you know something of 

 its early leaders : Of Omar, who was the 

 great friend of the Prophet and who soon 

 became his successor. You know how 

 he stood out for the principle of absti- 

 nence as laid down in the Koran. When 

 it was told him that Khalid, the governor 

 of Damascus, a man who was called the 

 Sword of God, because he had been so 

 successful a general, had found that cer- 

 tain leading Moslems had taken intoxi- 

 cating liquor, but in view of the fact that 



they were so influential, he felt that they 

 ought to be pardoned — when, I say, 

 Omar, the calif, heard of that, his anger 

 knew no bounds. He sent this message 

 to the governor of Damascus : "Khalid," 

 he said, "make an assembly of the people, 

 as great as you can. Call these men be- 

 fore thee and ask them this question: 

 'Did you or did you not take intoxicating 

 liquor?' If they say they did, then be- 

 fore the people give them one hundred 

 and twenty lashes, sixty being the ordi- 

 nary punishment. But if they state they 

 did not, when you know that they did, 

 behead them, every one." 



This Omar was the man who, when he 

 assumed the power as calif, stood before 

 the people and laid this down as his inau- 

 gural message: "By God, he that is 

 weakest among you shall be in my sight 

 the strongest until I have vindicated for 

 him his rights; but he that is strongest 

 will I treat as the weakest until he com- 

 plies with the law." 



Now you :an imagine how those young 

 Moslems are listening intently as the 

 Bible is read daily from the pulpit and 

 prayers are offered and a word of expo- 

 sition or exhortation is spoken. As I 

 said, we do not cram religion down their 

 throats. They are not there in the col- 

 lege in order to become Christians or to 

 adopt any other particular form of reli- 

 gion, but we are there to share our 

 Christian ideals with them. We do not 

 ask them to do anything contrary to 

 their religion. We frankly say that we 

 feel that a system of education to be 

 a complete system of education must in- 

 clude the education of the spirit and of 

 the soul. We tell them that the very best 

 thing we have to share with them is the 

 Christian ideal, and if they cannot attend 

 the chapel services conscientiously they 

 must seek some other institution. 



In the chapel we do not compel Mos- 

 lems and Jews and Druses to bow their 

 heads. We ask them to do that which 

 they would ask us to do if the position 

 were reversed and if we were ourselves 

 in a Moslem mosque or school, namely, 

 to show reverence and to maintain quiet ; 

 and they do. We tell them that a man 



