I therefore invite and shall be grateful for all suggestions and criticisms, hoping to profit by
them in rendering (by God's blessing) a second edition more useful to my fellow labourers than the
first can be.
7. It has again and again been asked, "Why should missionaries enter at all on the
discussion of such doctrines as that of the Trinity when dealing with either Muhammadans or
heathens? Why not imitate the Apostles and at first inculcate belief in the Divine Unity, letting
the doctrine of the Trinity evolve itself, as it were, in the minds of converts, very much as it did
in the early Church?" This seems very sensible advice indeed as far as our dealings with
polytheists are concerned, and it is doubtless just what workers among them do. But missionaries to
Muhammadans are forced to enter upon the doctrine of the Trinity, because all Muslims know
that Christians hold it, and Muhammadans deem it the weakest point in the Christian faith and
therefore invariably select it for attack. As they imagine that by the doctrine of the Trinity we
express our belief in three Gods (one of whom they often fancy to be the Virgin Mary), we have to
explain what the true faith is, and to prove that it is taught in Holy Scripture.
8. It must be borne in mind that this book is not intended to be a manual of Christian
dogmatics, but only to be a handbook dealing simply and briefly with the most usual Muhammadan
objections