Mohammedan Missions.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3372, 13 October 1879, Page 3

Mohammedan Missions.

Aggbessive Tendencies of the Moslem Religion.

Mas Muller in his Westminster discottrse on Missions classifies the Moslem religion with the Christian as essentially aggressive and missionary in its character. This distinction it preserves to-day as strongly as when it was just launched npon the sea of time. Though centuries bare passed away since the great prophet of Arabia avowed his misiion, and though the system be inaugurated has undergone various modifications, it has not ceased to be restless,.expansive, and bent on propogandine itself to the ends of the earth. The tnnjority of people living in England and America do not realize as they should this fact and its significance. They have fallen into the easy habit of regarding lalamism as practically dead. When the progress of the Crescent was checked at Tours, when the Moors were driven out of Spain, particularly when England subjected India to its yoke, and the Sublime Porte was forced to mould its policy to suit the demands of .Russia, Christian people congratulated themselves that the reign of the false prophet was over, and thatJtT.eir Saviour's victory was nigh at hand. This impression has grown from year to year until it has settled into a conviction,—a conviction so strong and complacent that the man who attempts to disturb it must be prepared to receive for his pains either the ridicule or the reproaches of his fellow-disciples. We are satisfied that at present there is a most remarkable movement,' a dissemination of Islamism as wonderful as the successes which have of late attended Christian missions, and which deserves the serious attention of thoughtfnl souls. Dr Dollinger, of anti-infal-libility fame, has recently issued an important paper on this subject, imparting to the public much suggestive information. He states that in Africa whole tribes once given to fetish worship, have become devout adherants of Mohammed. At Sierra Leone a Moslem university in flourishing, in which are being educated 8 thousand young men, whose lives will be as absolutely surrendered to the cause the school represents as were the lives of the early soldiers of the Crescent who counted it joy to fall in its defence on the field of battle. In China the followers of this ancient symbol have increased beyond computation, 50,000 residing in Tonquih alone. Among the Maylayans and the islanders of the Eastern Archipelago it is reported that 18,000,000 have been won over to its support; and still one-fifth of the dwellers on the earth are enrolled in its army, of whom 50,000,000 are subjects of her Majesty Queen Victoria. Surely, in view of such facts, it is preposterous to talk about the decline of Mohammedanism, or to represent it as a huge carcass without a soul.—Alliance.