THE FCTUKE OF ISLAM. 



65 



each other quite as thoroughly as when a thousand years ago 

 they came across each other's path." This writer is one of those 

 who regard the effect of Christian agencies among Mohanimedans 

 as wholly injurious. From no quarter of the mission field 

 does it appear that there is anything like a turn of the tide iir 

 the direction of the adoption of Christianity on any considerable 

 scale. And since in many regions agencies have been maintained 

 for many years, it seems improbable, on the evidence of facts^ 

 that the merging of Islam in Christianity is to be looked ibr 

 in the future. 



There are also certain a priori grounds which make in the 

 same direction. 



The first of these is to be found in recent developments of 

 Christianity, wdiich are likely at some time or other to render 

 missionary effort exceeding difficult, if indeed they do not 

 either suppress it altogether, or absolutely remodel its character. 

 Without doing more than allude to this subject, we may observe 

 that the conception of conversion as the exchange of one system 

 for another must be vastly altered if it be no longer possible 

 for the missionary to hold in his hand a sacred book as a sub- 

 stitute for the sacred book to v/liich the Moslem professes 

 allegiance : if che case of the Koran against the Bible, so far as 

 it is negative, be held by the missionary to be proved. "What 

 will exactly be meant by a proselytizing mission, when the 

 growing aversion to dogmas and definite beliefs which is 

 characteristic of our age has reached its climax, it will be hard 

 to say ; hence the notion of the conversion of the Islamic world 

 to Christianity would defy analysis if we had grounds for 

 supposing the future of Islam to lie therein. 



In other words, the polemic between Mohammedans and 

 Christians will of necessity assume a different shape to that 

 which is embodied in classical works of controversy, when the 

 aggressive polemic of the ^lohammedans has virtually received 

 the assent of the Christian world ; and that this is likely to be- 

 the case would appear from the trend of opinion in Europe. 



But even before this radical change in the attitude of 

 Christianity tow^ards religious books and religious dogmas has 

 become universal, the work of missionaries is seriously hindered 

 by the competition of rival agencies, and the bickerings 

 between antagonistic sects. At Urmi, besides the Xestorian 

 natives, no fewer than four branches of European Christianity 

 have established missions, at times at open variance with each 

 other ; and both here and elsewhere the relations between the 

 native Christian sects are apt to be anything but cordial — cases 



