The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-10-26

said to be 100000 in Central Africa
mostly recent converts, for Mohammedan-
ism is actively preached and is being rap
idly propagated in Africa at this time.
They have college in Egypt with ten
thousand students in training as mission
aries for foreign lands. 1t is represented
that one hundred thousand converts en-
braced the Mussulman faith in 1879 in
China alone. They have thirty-six
mosques in Marking. On the occasion
OF the annual pilgrimage at Arafat there
were assembled last year go, $50 persons,
some of them from Java, the Cape of
Good Hope, Persia, and India. There
were 5000 Ottomans from Europe and
Syria, 5000 Egyptians, 5000 from the
Barbary States, 5000 Persians, $1,000
from India, and some 10000 Malays.
Ii 100000 of these fanatics in Asia,
and 100000 in Africa, with some
100000 Turks, should be stirred by the
common impulse which brought all these
strangers together, and especially if some
able leader should present himself at the
head of an army, they could at least raise
no small commotion in the eastern world.
What they lack is not the disposition,
nor the enthusiasm, nor the courage
they have all these,-but the organise
ton, the money, the science, and arms.
Europe is too intelligent for them. 1t is
the power of education over ignorance.
knowledge has given to Europe all those
appliances of modern civilization which
makes her match for tenfold her num-
bers in Asia and Africa. That is, pro-
nded that Europe be united. But sup
pose that Europe is not united in such an
emergency? Suppose we should find
some of the powers of Europe trying to
weaken the others by an alliance with the
East? Suppose Papal Europe should
array itself against the Protestant powers,
in connection with an uprising of the
Moslems in Egypt, in Turkey, in Arabia,
and in India?
And is it not strange to see these peo-
pie at this day clinging SO conscientious
ly, so passionately, aye, so devoutly, to
the religion of Mohammed? 1t is not
until we compare it with evangelical
Christianity-such bad religion. The
Mohammedan believes, first, in one God;
he recognises the Old and New Testa-
ments; he regards Christ as the greatest
of all the prophets, and deems it a crime
to blaspheme his name; he is an intense
foe to all idolatry; he believes in prayer;
he believes in preaching--in every
mosque there is pulpit; he is also tenn
perate in his habits, and grave and rev.
erential in his feelings; he believes in
future retribution. So far, so good. He
stumbles at Mohammed, whom he re-
CARDS as the last of the prophets, and
from whom he receives the final revela-
ton to man in the shape of the Koran.
President Cyrus Hamlin writes of them
"H He is, first of all, very religious being.
His faith is undisturbed by doubts. God
is everything, man is nothing. He is
extremely sociable and hospitable. If
you treat him frankly and kindly, he
will give you the best he has and look
for no reward. He loves pious CONVEX
sation. He will talk with you till mid
night on the attributes of God, the an
gels, the judgment, prayer, fasting, good
works, the apostles, of God, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed."
In fact here is the groundwork for an
excellent Presbyterian; eradicate Mo-
manned and enthrone Jesus Christ in
the heart of the Mussulman, and you
will have fine Christian type.
The reader may draw the inference
that the Mussulman religion, then, is not
so bad after all-not such an evidence as
we have represented it, of the perversity
and depravity of the human heart. But
such an one needs to remember that those
nations which embraced Mohammedan-
ism in the seventh and eighth centuries
had been Christian nations, and they sur
rendered themselves blindly to this i'm
posture. Moreover, there is another side
to the picture the Rev. S. G.. Wilson, Of
Tabriz, Persia, says in TIE Gospel IN Al