o Spain. Christianity gave way before it,
and has never regained some of the ground then lost, while at this day
we see Islam making marked progress in Africa and elsewhere. Travelers
tell us that the gain is great when a tribe casts away its idols and
embraces Islam. Filth and drunkenness flee away, and the state of the
people is bettered in a high degree."

"Muslims have not treated Christ as we have treated Mohammed, for the
devout among them never utter his name without adding the touching
words, 'on whom be peace.'"

"Mohammed counseled men to live a good life, and to strive after the
mercy of God by fasting, charity, and prayer, which he called 'the key
of paradise.'"

"He abolished the frightful practice of killing female children, and
made the family tie more respected."

He said: "_A man's true wealth hereafter is the good he has done in this
world to his fellow-men_. When he dies, people will ask, What property
has he left behind him? But the angels will ask, What good deeds has he
sent before him?" [Which is a doctrine wholesome and just, so for as it
applies to this world, and inculcates the right sort of morals.]

"Mohammed commanded his followers to make no image of any living thing,
to show mercy to the weak and orphaned, and kindness to brutes; to
abstain from gambling, and the use of strong drink.

"The great truth which he strove to make real to them was that God is
one, that, as the Koran says, 'they surely are infidels who say that God
is the third of three, for there is no God but one God.'"

He was the great original Unitarian.

"I should add that the wars of Islam did not leave waste and ruin in
their path, but that the Arabs, when they came to Europe, alone held
aloft the light of learning, and in the once famous schools of Spain,
taught 'philosophy, medicine, astronomy, and the golden art of song.'"

We cannot speak so well of the "holy wars" of Christianity.

In speaking of the men who wrote our Bible, Clodd says: "Nor is it easy
to find in what they have said truths which, in one form or another,
have not been stated by the writers of some of the sacred books into
which we have dipped."

I have quoted more fully than had been my intention simply to show the
egotistic ignorance of the Christian's claim to possess a religion or a
Bible which differs, in any material regard, from several others which
are older, and to indicate that moral ideas, precepts, and practices
are the propert