which a Christian missionary of
the present day would dream of aiming.

"A Christian missionary could not thus bring over a Pagan or a Muslim
tribe to Christianity, even if he would; he ought not to try thus to
bring them over, even if he could. 'Missionary work,' as remarked by an
able writer in the _Spectator_ the other day, 'is sowing, not reaping,
and the sowing of a plant which is slow to bear.' At times, the
difficulties and discouragements may daunt the stoutest heart and the
most living faith. But God is greater than our hearts and wider than our
thoughts, and, if we are able to believe in Him at all, we must also
believe that the ultimate triumph of Christianity--and by Christianity I
mean not the comparatively narrow creed of this or that particular
Church, but the Divine Spirit of its Founder, that Spirit which, exactly
in proportion as they are true to their name, informs, and animates, and
underlies, and overlies them all--is not problematical, but certain, and
in His good time, across the lapse of ages, will prove to be, not local
but universal, not partial but complete, not evanescent but
eternal."[124]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 97: Sprenger's _Life of Mohammed_, pp. 40, 41.]

[Footnote 98: It is a suspicious fact that the first chapter of the
_Koran_ begins with protestations that it is a true revelation, and with
most terrible anathemas against all who doubt it. This seems
significant, and contrasts strongly with the conscious truthfulness and
simplicity of the Gospel narrators.]

[Footnote 99: Nor have later defenders of the system failed to derive
alleged proofs of their system from Biblical sources. Mohammedan
controversialists have urged some very specious and plausible arguments;
for example, Deut. xviii. 15-18, promises that the Lord shall raise up
unto Israel a prophet from _among their brethren_. But Israel had no
brethren but the sons of Ishmael. There was also promised a prophet like
unto Moses; but Deut. xxxiv. declares that "_There arose no Prophet in
Israel like unto Moses_."

When John the Baptist was asked whether he were the Christ, or Elijah,
or "_that prophet_," no other than Mohammed could have been meant by
"_that prophet_."]

[Footnote 100: Rev. Mr. Bruce, missionary in Persia, states that
pictures of the Father, the Son, and Mary are still seen in Eastern
churches.--_Church Missionary Intelligencer_, January, 1882.]

[Footnote 101: Sales, in his _Preliminary Discourse_, S