mportant characteristics of the prophetic order. He saw truth
about God which his fellowmen did not see, and he had an
irresistible inward impulse to publish this truth. In respect of
this latter qualification Mahommed may stand comparison with the
most courageous of the heroic prophets of Israel. For the truth's
sake he risked his life, he suffered daily persecutions for years,
and eventually banishment, the loss of property, of the goodwill of
his fellow-citizens, and the confidence of his friends--he suffered
in short as much as any man can suffer short of death, which he
only escaped by flight, and yet he unflinchingly proclaimed his
message. No bribe, threat or inducement could silence him. 'Though
they array against me the sun on the right hand, and the moon on
the left, I cannot renounce my purpose.' And it was this
persistency, this belief in his call, to proclaim the Unity of God
which was the making of Islam. Other men have been monotheists in
the midst of idolaters, but no other man has founded a strong and
enduring monotheistic religion. The distinction in his case was his
resolution that other men should believe.... His giving himself out
as a prophet of God was, in the first instance, not only sincere,
but probably correct in the sense in which he himself understood
it. He felt that he had thoughts of God which it deeply concerned
all around him to receive, and he knew that these thoughts were
given him by God, although not, as we shall see, a revelation
strictly so called. His mistake lay by no means in his supposing
himself to be called upon by God to speak for him and introduce a
better religion, but it lay in his gradually coming to insist quite
as much on men's accepting him as a prophet as on their accepting
the great truth he preached. He was a prophet to his countrymen in
so far as he proclaimed the Unity of God, but this was no
sufficient ground for his claiming to be their guide in all matters
of religion, still less for his assuming the lordship over them in
all matters civil as well...."

The learned doctor further on in his book, "Mohammed, Buddha, and
Christ," remarks:--

"But as we endeavour to estimate the good and evil of Islam, it
gradually appears that the chief point we must attend to is to
distinguish between its valu