Islam and Christianity 1918
Islam and Christianity 1918
Islam and Christianity 1918
Christ does not realize the vital character of the conflict with Islam.
She realizes the danger t e d a y no more than she did in the year 632.
W e think of Islam as one among many old world religions hastening to
inevitable extinction before the advance of knowledge and civilization.
W e think of it as a religion founded and extended solely by the sword,
and with the dwindling of Mohammedan temporal power are content to
believe that all danger to our Faith is past. W e forget that to-day no
error can be, if indeed it ever has been, successfully propagated by physi-
cal force alone. T h e real danger is and always has been the vital enerm
of Islam, and its determined aspiration after universal dominion. Islam
is the “Germany” of world religions.
T o sum up. T w o great religions contend for the world-wide
obedience of mankind, and neither can rest content with anything lcss.
Islam has in the past been strong enough to defeat the Christian
Church in her own strongholds; it is extending to-day at a rate which
is the surest evidence of unimpaired vitality, and the Church is doing but
little to check its progress. Yet the results of missionary effort in
India and elsewhere show that before aggressive spiritual Christanity
Islam can never stand. Upon the ancient battlefield, never utterly
abandoned by the Church, she may yet win a victory that shall wipe
out the memory of past defeats. Here the political supremacy of
Islam is slipping away, new possibilities are opening, and by a bold and
vigorous effort in Palestine now, Christianity might produce spiritual
results which would have a far-reaching effect on the future of the
struggle.”