42

THE MOHAMMEDAN CONTROVERSY

insinuations, gratuitous severity, and supercilious language which we sometimes meet with, are the most powerful adversaries of conviction. Let us not, however, be mistaken; we are boldly and unflinchingly to declare the message and truth of the Gospel, and the incompatibility of the Moslem faith with it, but it must be done with prudence, with kindness, with love. The missionary of the Cross will find it a difficult thing in the heat of controversy, when his own feelings are wounded in the tenderest point, when his Saviour is afresh buffeted in his presence, to command his temper and his words; —and yet it is absolutely necessary, as well for the exemplification of the Christian character as for success. Finally, there are two lessons we should learn from this controversy. The first is, never to employ a weak argument; for the effect generally is most disadvantageous to our position, and we may be certain that it will not escape the eagle eye of our adversary, who will leave all our stronger reasoning in order to expose the fallacy of the weaker. The second is, never to force a prophecy; fanciful and far-fetched interpretations must be studiously avoided by ourselves, if we wish with any consistency to deny those of the Mohammedans: let our conclusions be always the clear, unforced, unquestionable, deductions of reason.

We cannot close the subject without referring to an argument which is strongly urged by all the Mohammedan writers we have been reviewing, and which, if proved, would establish the divine origin of Islam; more especially as one of its most able supporters is a clergyman of the Church of England. Mr. Forster, in his Mohammedanism Unveiled, proposes to explain the success of that creed, which he holds has never been satisfactorily accounted for, by considering it the fulfilment of the blessing promised to Abraham for Ishmael's seed.1 How eagerly would our Maulavis welcome Mr. Forster! Ahmed, Mahommed Ruza, Kâzim Ali, and the author of the Saulat uz Zaigham, all adopt the very same line of reasoning, namely, that the blessing of Ishmael is fulfilled in Mohammed, that the twelve princes are the twelve


1 Gen. xvii. 20.