Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-02-03

from divine wrath, nor those who be
lieve in the Son be free from sin.
"The Moslem believes that the idea
of atonement in Christianity is a sur.
vival of the conception which pre-
vailed among all the nations of an
tiquity, and which is in vogue even
now among some races, that an angry
God can only be appeased by the sac
rifice' of human beings, particularly
someone especially dear or especially
precious. The Islamist does not be-
lieve that Jesus ever wished his follow
ers to understand his death as sacri-
fetal offering for the sins of mankind
in general or their sins in particular
The enthusiasm with which the COM
mon folk had welcomed him unto Jer
usalem had already died out; whilst
the bitterness and alarm of the priests
and rabbis had increased. AS the
dream of an immediate advent of the
| kingdom of heaven faded away, the
| heart was filled with forebodings of
betrayal and death. And these fore
bodings naturally found expression at
the Last Supper-the Passover feast
which the Prophet shared for the last
time with his disciples. 1t was then
| that he invited them on all such occa-
sions to remember him and the tidings
he had brought The old message was
dead in the hearts of men; the new,
| fresh with hope and charity, had
broken the rigorous bonds of the Levitt
ical Law. 1t was the beginning of a
new era-a new life; and he naturally
called upon them to forget the old as
sociations. and not, in future, to con.
meet the Passover feast with the de.
| liverance from Egypt, but to remem.
Der it in his personality as a mem
orial of their liberation from the
shackles of a lifeless Journalism To
accentuate his advice, and to impress
on them his earnestness, it is possible
he told them when partalSing of the
paschal meal, to look upon the bread
they ate as his flesh, and the wine
they drank as his blood. The Mos
lens think this to be more natural
explanation of his words-if he ever
used them-than to suppose he meant
to convey, mystically disguised, an
unnatural idea, which does not com.
mend itself to reason"
The doctrine of justification by
faith" says the writer, may be said
to derive support from the sayings of
Jesus as reported in the Christian
gospels. He charges Paul with hav-
| ing interviewer into his system, as an
integral part of Christianity, the lit
eral construction of these words to
mean that $50 long as people believed
| in Jesus, conduct is immaterial." The
Moslem, he adds, naturally regards
the doctrine of justification by faith
as disastrous to human morality"
What, he asks, did Jesus actually
teach? And he replies:
"The Islamic belief is that his mis-.
sion, like that of Mohammed, was to
re-enunciate the eternal truths of God
and to recall humanity to the newt
able track of spiritual evolution. His
ethical precepts, whether direct in
| form or dressed in parallels, are thus
common to all higher religions. There
| is no question of borrowing from one
source or another, for God imparts His
truths to all He chooses for His work.
Jesus was thus not the first to i'm.
press on the conscience of mankind
the duties of self-sacrifice, self-abnega-
ton, devotion to God, love of human
lily. There were others before him,
as others after him, to preach the
practice of peace, humanity, charity,
good works, submission to Gods will,
forgiveness of injuries, and the de.
NAL of self.
'Buddha had preached in the east
i -