Second. The inducements, whether material or spiritual, to embrace Islam have proved insufficient of themselves (speaking broadly) to spread the faith, in the absence of the sword, and without the influence of the political or secular arm.

Third. The ordinances of Islam, those especially having respect to the female sex, have induced an inherent weakness, which depresses the social system and retards its progress.

[Sidenote:  Contrast with Christianity.] If the reader should have followed me in the argument by which these conclusions have been reached the contrast with the Christian faith has no doubt been suggesting itself at each successive step.

[Sidenote:  Christianity not propagated by force.] Christianity, as Al Kindy has so forcibly put it, gained a firm footing in the world without the sword, and without any aid whatever from the secular arm.  So far from having the countenance of the State it triumphed in spite of opposition, persecution, and discouragement.  “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence....  For this end came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.  Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice."[78]

[Sidenote:  Nor by worldly inducements.] The religion itself, in its early days, offered no worldly attractions or indulgences.  It was not, like Islam, an “easy way.”  Whether in withdrawal from social observances deeply tainted with idolatry, the refusal to participate in sacrificial ceremonies insisted on by the rulers, or in the renunciation of indulgences inconsistent with a saintly life, the Christian profession required self-denial at every step.

[Sidenote:  Adaptive principles and plastic faculty of Christianity.] But otherwise the teaching of Christianity nowhere interfered with the civil institutions of the countries into which it penetrated or with any social customs or practices that were not in themselves immoral or idolatrous.  It did not, indeed, neglect to guide the Christian life.  But it did so by the enunciation of principles and rules of wide and far-reaching application.  These, no less than the injunctions of the Koran, served amply for the exigencies of the day.  But they have done a vast deal more.  They have proved themselves capable of adaptation to the most advanced stages of social development and intellectual elevation.  And, what is infinitely more, it may be claimed for the lessons embodied in the Gospel that they have been themselves promotive, if indeed they have not been the immediate cause, of all the most important reforms and philanthropies that now prevail in Christendom.  The principles thus laid down contained germs endowed with the power of life and growth which, expanding and flourishing, slowly it may be, but surely, have at the last borne the fruits we see.