lowest form of it in Ceylon, says that its code of
morals is "second only to that of Christianity itself," and enjoins
"every conceivable virtue and excellence." It is coming among us,
represented by many of the Chinese, and a San-Francisco merchant, a
Christian of the Episcopal Church, told me that, on conversing with
their educated men, he found in them a religious faith quite as
enlightened as his own. Shall we not rejoice in this consoling
discovery? "Yes," said the simple-hearted Abbe Huc: so he published
his account of Buddhism, and saw it excommunicated. "No!" said Father
Ripa, "it is the invention of the devil!"[I]

With a steady wave of progress Mohammedanism is sweeping through
Africa, where Christianity scarcely advances a step. Wherever
Mohammedanism reaches, schools and libraries are established,
gambling and drunkenness cease, theft and falsehood diminish, polygamy
is limited, woman begins to be elevated and has property rights
guaranteed; and, instead of witnessing human sacrifices, you see the
cottager reading the Koran at her door, like the Christian cottager in
Cowper's description. "Its gradual extension," says an eye-witness,
"is gradually but surely modifying the negro.... Within the last half
century the humanizing influence of the Koran is acknowledged by all
who are acquainted with the interior tribes."[J] So in India,
Mohammedanism makes converts by thousands (according to Col. Sleeman,
than whom there can be no more intelligent authority) where
Christianity makes but a handful; and this, he testifies, because in
Mohammedanism there is no spirit of caste, while Christians have a
caste of their own, and will not put converts on an equality. Do we
rejoice in this great work of progress? No! one would think we were
still in the time of the crusades by the way we ignore the
providential value of Mohammedanism.

The one unpardonable sin is exclusiveness. Any form of religion is
endangered when we bring it to the test of facts; for none on earth
can bear that test. There never existed a person, nor a book, nor an
institution, which did not share the merits and the drawbacks of its
rivals. Granting all that can be established as to the debt of the
world to the very best dispensation, the fact still remains, that
there is not a single maxim, nor idea, nor application, nor triumph,
that any single religion can claim as exclusively its own. Neither
faith, nor love, nor truth, nor disinterestedness, nor