The Washington bee., 1912-02-24
IS CHRISTIANITY LOSING?
The Lucknow Conference-Mahom-
met, the Holy Bible of the Chris
tians Forbids Everything.

=
himself what would happen II, ever
for a short space of time, men los
their faith in Christ and in the ulti
mate redemption Of the world. Witt
this question burning into his mind
core, he seemed to see Faith lying
PROSTATE at his feet, while over The
children OF men TeIgned Murder, Ra
pine and Terror. 1t was then thai
Thorne turned to his desk and begaT
to write that absorbing story, 'WheT
1t Was Dark a tale OF the tOu
blackness which euvelOped the earth
when mems faith IN Christ dlsap-
peared.
Thoughtful men all over the world
are wondering whether that very de
cay which Thorne conceived IN his
mind IS not actually threatening the
Christian church today. That this
fear Is we'll defined is borne out by
the prOdigious religious campaign
mapped out by the Men and Relig-
ION Movement which was recently 5rl
afoOt in New York City. Almost be
fore we finished reading of the inau-
guration OF this great movement come
the reports OF the Lucknow Confer
enCe bringing the discouraging infOr-
nation that MOhammedanism Is fast
driving Christianity out Of the Orr
ent, and the African continent
The Lucknow Conference was made
up OF missionaries whose activities
cover thousands Of miles of territory
and embrace millions upon millions
OF men With a unanimity most dis
heaTtening, they admitted that Islam
had at last brought the religion OF
the lOwly NaZarene to bay. And It
must not be thought that this state
ment applies only to the oriental peO-
pies, for it was shown that the doc
trines of the Great Caliph are being
slowly but surely borne unto the ut
termost parts Of the earth. While the
Christians slept, the Mohammedan
has found not one moment to spare.
For the condition thus brought to
the worlds attention, there must be
d reason. The New York Times finds
two great causes at the bottom Of it,
one being the racial identity OF the
followers of the Prophet, the other
being the influence of the deTvish or
ders. In Africa alone" says The
Times, there are no less than dozen
active religious cOnfraternities, of
which the youngest dates from IS43,
and the oldest from II65. One of
them maintains seventy-Seven mOnas-
teries in Algeria alone; another, the
most recently, has a membership eX-
Ceeding 100000. The results attain
ed by this innumerable army of
priests are only what might be ex-
pected. From the mouth of the Sen
egal to Lagos, over 1000 miles said
Blyden some years ago, there IS said
to be hardly any town of importance
on TIE seabOard in which there is not
at least one mosque, with active prop
agandists of Islam.
Is what the New York Times says
right? Yes, as far as it goes, but if
the truth be told the Times does not
come even close to the real causes.
The doctrine of Islam first, last and
always Is "Obey the law of God as
revealed by Him to His Prophet, Ma
homet, by whom it was recorded in
the Koran If two words were
chosen to represent the teachings of
Islam, those two words must be
obey and believe" and such, in
deed, seems to be the CrOwning fea-
ture Of the IslamiC faith. As we pen
these lines we turn aside for a mo-
ment and open the book of the Koran
at random. We read: Shall l seek
after any other Judge besides God to
Judge between us? 1t IS He who hath
sent down unto you the book Of the
Koran distinguishing between good
and evil and they to whom we gave
the scripture know that it is sent
down from thy Lord, with truth.
gI-
in truth and Justice; there IS none
who can change his words Thus |
the majesty of the Lord of the Mos |
lem faith Is set forth in the Koran, /
thus is proclaimed the immutability /
of his law
If the Holy Bible of the Christians |
Is full of thoughts of equal grandeur /
as the one just quoted from the kO- /
ran, certainly nothing in the Bible /
surpasscs It. The difference comes /
in the relative attitude Of the two i
sets of followers. To the Noslem |
his religion is as dear as life itself. |
Does the muezZin call the faithful to |
prayer On his knees drops We Mos |
lem, wherever he Is, Is he command
ed to do something at which his whole |
soul revolts2 He seeks the pages Of |
the Koran and finds that 1t must
be so; it Is written in the law of
God.
Meanwhile the Christian, wearing
his religion like a garment, loosely, |
puts it off and on again at his leis-
ure. The Bible fOrbids, but where IS
its grip 1t has none, it seems. With
a false aureole of hypocrisy about his
head, the Christian goes forth to CON
quer the heather nations of earth. !
He sends his missionaries into the
realms beyond the seven seas, but
when they reach the scene of their
looked-for conqueSts, they find they
must dispute the ground with Islam.
Islam SAYS to the heather, The BIZ
bic of the Christians forbids every
thing, it deters nothing. That men
should follow at all times the die
tates of their own desires were con-
trary to the law of God, yet such Is
the way Of the Christian Behold wei
bring you the religion OF the true and
the living God, whose prophet is Nal
hommet His immutable law, COM
pelling men TO obedience, declare we
unto you Choose We which We will
have
\ religion which does nOt-can not
n