8-i 



PROF. D. S. MAEGOLIOUTH, D.IJTT., ON" 



occupation it commenced, and after centuries had elapsed, a military 

 occupation it still remained. This circumstance would alone account 

 for its failure to civilize and to develop peoples as Christianity has 

 done. 



Beside this cause, however, there is another ; I allude to polygamy. 

 The ruling classes in Mohammedan countries are brought up in the 

 atmosphere of the harem. Mohammedanism has no respect for 

 woman, but degrades her into the slave of the lusts of man. The 

 future ruler of men passes his infancy and childhood among women, 

 who, as a rule, have neither minds nor morals, and around him he 

 sees nothing but ignorance and intrigue, and from his earliest years 

 he is accustomed to self-indulgence, which, as he grows older, is 

 often of the basest character. He emerges from his seclusion 

 without a single one of the habits which are necessary for a 

 governing race : neither self-control, nor honour, nor honesty, nor 

 justice, nor even mercy. Wherever he goes he is surrounded by 

 parasites ; and peculation and favouritism dog his steps. 



The reason for the moral supremacy of Christianity is the 

 grandeur of the moral ideal which it sets before mankind. Here, 

 certainly, "the best is " not " the enemy of the good." Experience 

 has proved that the nobler the moral ideal in a nation, the greater is 

 its moral strength. Still more is this the case when, as in Christi- 

 anity, religion not only provides the noble ideal, but supplies the 

 strength which enables us to approach to it. Even sceptics like 

 Mill and Lecky have admitted the grandeur and beauty of the 

 character of Christ. And when we add to the inspiring character 

 of His example, the fact that in the case of those who put their 

 faith in Him He inhabits them by His Spirit, we find the secret of 

 the elevation of soul, the loftiness of spirit, which exist where the 

 Christian Church is found. The devotion to duty, the absence of 

 all low and selfish motives which the best men in every Christian 

 State display, is the result of a religion which has for its basis the 

 incomparable Sacrifice of Christ, and the fact of the outpouring of 

 the Spirit of that Sacrifice into all who believe on Him. 



From the Eev. G. F. Whidborne : — 



It appears to me that Professor jNIargoliouth's paper is most 

 important, in the xicw it presents of the outlook of Islam, and the 

 more so because he rather presents facts than draws conclusions. 



