Two Old Faiths Part 9

"As a reformer, Mohammed did indeed advance his people to a certain point, but as a prophet he left them fixed immovably at that point for all time to come. As there can be no return, so neither can there be any progress. The tree is of artificial planting. Instead of containing within itself the germ of growth and adaptation to the various requirements of time, and clime, and circ.u.mstance, expanding with the genial sunshine and the rain from heaven, it remains the same forced and stunted thing as when first planted twelve centuries ago."[81]

[Sidenote: Christianity compared by Christ to the works of nature.]

Such is Islam. Now what is Christianity? Listen to the prophetic words of the Founder himself, who compares it to the works of nature:

"_So is the kingdom of G.o.d, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;_

"_And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how._

"_For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear._"[r]

And again:

"_Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of G.o.d, or with what comparison shall we compare it?_

"_It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all seeds that be in the earth;_

"_But when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it._"[s]

[Sidenote: Islam the work of man; Christianity the work of G.o.d.]

Which is _nature_, and which is _art_, let the reader judge. Which bears the impress of man's hand, and which that of Him who "is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working?"

In fine, of the Arabian it may be said:

"_Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed._"

But of Christ:

"_His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed._

"_He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth._

"_Blessed be the Lord G.o.d, the G.o.d of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen._"[t]

FOOTNOTES:

[e] 1 Cor. vii, 21.

[f] Gal. iii, 26, 28.

[g] 1 Cor. vii, 22.

[h] Philemon 16.

[i] Matt. xix, 4.

[j] 1 Cor. vii, 3.

[k] 1 Thess. iv, 4.

[l] 1 Tim. v, 2.

[m] 1 Tim. ii, 9.

[n] 1 Pet. iii, 7.

[o] Luke ii, 10.

[p] Luke i, 77-79.

[q] Job x.x.xviii, 5.

[r] Mark iv, 26-28.

[s] Mark iv, 30-32.

[t] Psa. lxxii, 17, 8, 18, 19.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Barth.

[2] Bergaigne, in his able treatise, _La Religion Vedique_, insists earnestly on what he calls the "liturgical contamination of the myths." See vol. iii, p. 320.

[3] R.V., ix, 42, 4.

[4] R.V., ix, 97, 24.

[5] The religion of the Indo-European race, while still united, "recognized a supreme G.o.d; an organizing G.o.d; almighty, omniscient, moral.... This conception was a heritage of the past.... The supreme G.o.d was originally the G.o.d of heaven." So Darmesteter, _Contemporary Review_, October, 1879. Roth had previously written with much learning and acuteness to the same effect.

[6] Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v, 412.

[7] R.V., iii, 62, 10.

[8] The rites, says Haug, "must have existed from times immemorial."--_Aitareya Brahmana_, pp. 7, 9.

[9] Weber, _History of Indian Literature_, p. 38.

[10] Max Muller, _Ancient Sanskrit Literature_, p. 389.

[11] "The haughty Indra takes precedence of all G.o.ds." R.V., 1, 55.

[12] "These two personages [Indra and Varuna] sum up the two conceptions of divinity, between which the religious consciousness of the Vedic Aryans seems to oscillate."--Bergaigne, _La Religion Vedique_, vol. iii, p. 149.