THE PRINCIPLES OF WORLD-EMPIRE. 



27 



We are often told that the Mohammedan religion was 

 propagated by the sword. True undoubtedly ; but the explana- 

 tion leaves unexplained all that requires explanation. The 

 Arabs had been wielders of the sword, and for that matter 

 successful wielders, since we first hear of their existence ; 

 both Egypt and Babylonia had known them and experienced 

 their prowess. 



But it was their religion which gave these desert tribes 

 coherence, which welded them into a nation, and enabled them 

 to incorporate races of widely different origin. So one doctrine, 

 one sense of unity, spread from the Ganges to the Atlas, and 

 from the Altai to Khartoum. 



The doctrine which gave so striking a power of cohesion to 

 such incoherent material was that of the Sovereignty of God. 

 And this doctrine was held as a faith, for a man's faith is not 

 the doctrine that he may chance to profess, but that which he 

 practises. It is a common and a cheap thing to profess belief 

 in God, — as common as conceit, and as cheap as cant, — when the 

 god in which we believe is simply the deification of our own 

 supposed merits, and his chief function is to gratify our vanity 

 and accomplish our desires. Many conquerors, many nations, 

 have professed to believe in God : even Sennacherib could 

 worship in " the house of Nisroch," and Nebuchadnezzar 

 return thanks to Marduk for victories, and so on throughout 

 history. But it is a different thing indeed to recognize the 

 Presence of One infinitely exalted above us, One Who cannot 

 be the creature of our petty whims and self- worship, but before 

 Whom our wills, ambitions and purposes, must learn to abase 

 themselves. 



It is a deep and true distinction that Abraham Lincoln made, 

 wdien an eager supporter asked him, " You do think, Mr. Lincoln, 

 do you not, that God is on our side ? " " That, madam, is not a 

 point about which I am anxious ; what I am anxious about is 

 that we should be on God's side." He apprehended, that is to 

 say, something of the reality of God's rule over all the earth, 

 and of His infinite supremacy ; and longed, not so much for the 

 success of his own schemes, and of his own party, as for the 

 fulfilment of the Will of God. So, too, the religion of Islam 

 impressed upon its faithful adherents something of the same 

 insight, and the Mohammedan not only entreated God for 

 success, and thanked Him for victory, but in loss, in suffering 

 and defeat, he worshipped Him still, and said, " It is the will of 

 Allah." To him the sovereignty of God was a reality ever 

 present, and it had this immense political effect that when an 



