The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-02

therefrom.' He was fond Of animals and loved
children. No truer friend ever lived. He never
quarreled with another. His charity was bound
less His life, simple in all its details. His fare
was OF the p,ainest, even when sovereign Of
Arabia he lived on dates and water, and though
wcrshipped as a worker Of miracles, he never for
got himself or claimed to be more than weak,
fallible mortal, dependent upon divine mercy for
spiritual grace and salvation. When Moselima,
a rival and aspiring Prophet, wrote to him in an
hour of success: Snow let the earth be
half mine and half thine Mohammed re-
buked his arrogance with the reply ::
THE earth is Gods, He giveth to such Of
His servants as He pleaseth, and they who fear
Him shall prosper"
Surely this is not the Mohammed of early his
tory, the Anti-Christ, the Little horn of the
Revelation, the "Man of Sin" the gross sensualist
and imposter Of Christian tradition?
Although Mohammed repudiated the working
of miracles, and rejected only this attribute in
the life and teachings Of Jesus Christ, yet he
achieved almost miracle. An iiliterate tender
Of focks up to the age Of A. scarcely able to read
or write, he was yet the author OF q book which
is . poem, code of laws, book OF common
prayer and Bible in one, and is reverenced to
this day by nearly fifth Of the whole human
race as miracle Of purity of style, OF wisdom,
and of truth. That Christians do not share in
this veneration for the Koran, is due somewhat
to the fact Of it's being handed down in very
imperfect form. Dicta ed by Mohammed from
time to time to his disciples, it was by them
partly treasured in their memories, party written
cl.o Of top
Shells or on bits of wood or stones, being thrown
into boxes and umbled up together like the leaves
Of the Cumran Sibyl, and these were not put into
any shape until after the Prophets death. Then
arranged only according to the respective lengths
Of the sSuras the longest first, the shortest
last. The book is, therefore, . medley; but,
while breathing the highest morality through
out, it contains passages which rival in grandeur
the sublimest passages Of Job OF David or
Isaiah.
We have only space at disposal to thus allude
hastily to the prominent features Of this admira-
BILE book, which also discusses intelligently the
missionary work, past and prospective, Of the rival
Monotheisns, and in . manner both suggestive
and entertaining, arriving at the laudable con-
clusion that il Christian missionaries ever hope to
convert MohammedaDs they must alter their tao
tics. It will not be by discrediting the great
Arabian Prophet, nor by throwing doubts upon
his mission, but by paying him that homage
which is his due; by dwelling less upon the dog
mas Of Christianity than upon it's morality; by
showing how perfectly Christ, whom Mohammed
reverenced, came up to the ideal Messiah which
prophets and kings desired to see, and had not
seen, and which Mohammed himself, Prophet and
King in enc, could only half realize. That
this is the only road to reconciling the
two faiths at once reasonable and practicable,
few sensible men will venture to deny. We may
even doubt whether the state Of the Mohamme-
dan world as whole is to-day worse in proper
ton to it's light than that of Christendom up to
a comparatively late era Of its history, and de-
spite it's errors and abuses, due in great meas
ure to the fanaticism Of the Prophets successors,
Mohammedanism has nothing to lose and every
thing to gain by the keenest criticism. Upon
this subject, as upon most others, the melan-
choy jacques philosophy is perhaps after all the
only true WEAR There is good in everything"
and such muet be the conclusion in regard to
the subject matter treated by all who attentively
peruse this valuable and interesting work.