may be regarded by the Christian with shame and confusion.  In a purely Mohammedan land, however low may be the general level of moral feeling, the still lower depths of fallen humanity are unknown.  The ‘social evil’ and intemperance, prevalent in Christian lands, are the strongest weapons in the armory of Islam.  We point, and justly, to the higher morality and civilization of those who do observe the precepts of the Gospel, to the stricter unity and virtue which cement the family, and to the elevation of the sex; but in vain, while the example of our great cities, and too often of our representatives abroad, belies the argument.  And yet the argument is sound.  For, in proportion as Christianity exercises her legitimate influence, vice and intemperance will wane and vanish, and the higher morality pervade the whole body; whereas in Islam the deteriorating influences of polygamy, divorce, and concubinage have been stereotyped for all time.”—­The Koran:  its Composition and Teaching, and the Testimony it bears to the Holy Scriptures, p. 60.

[69] [Sidenote:  Alleged progress of Islam in Africa.] Much loose assertion has been made regarding the progress of Islam in Africa; but I have found no proof of it apart from armed, political, or trading influence, dogged too often by the slave-trade; to a great extent a social rather than a religious movement, and raising the fetich tribes (haply without intemperance) into a somewhat higher stage of semi-barbarism.  I have met nothing which would touch the argument in the text.  The following is the testimony of Dr. Koelle, the best possible witness on the subject: 

“It is true the Mohammedan nations in the interior of Africa, namely, the Bornuese, Mandengas, Pulas, etc., invited by the weak and defenseless condition of the surrounding negro tribes, still occasionally make conquests, and after subduing a tribe of pagans, by almost exterminating its male population and committing the most horrible atrocities, impose upon those that remain the creed of Islam; but keeping in view the whole of the Mohammedan world this fitful activity reminds one only of these green branches sometimes seen on trees, already, and for long, decayed at the core from age.”—­Food for Reflection, p. 37.

[70] Apology, p. 34.

[71] Annals, pp. 61, 224.

[72] Sura iv, v. 33.

[73] Life of Mohammed, p. 348.

[74] The City of God, p, 91.  Hodder & Stoughton, 1883.

[75] The Turks in India, by H.G.  Keene, C.S.I.  Allen & Co., 1879.

[76] Annals, etc., p. 457.

[77] See Sura xxxiv, v. 32.  The excepted relations are:  “Husbands, fathers, husbands’ fathers, sons, husbands’ sons, brothers, brothers’ sons, sisters’ sons, the captives which their right hands possess, such men as attend them and have no need of women, or children below the age of puberty.”

[78] John xviii, 36, 37.