he simplicity of my heart I offer myself to you to-day to be for
ever your servant--offer myself for obedience and for a sacrifice of
eternal praise. Receive me with this holy offering of your precious
Body, which I offer to you to-day in the presence of angels, assisting
though unseen, that it may be for my welfare and for the welfare of all
your people.

The voice of the beloved: "God does not deceive you; he is deceived who
trusts too much to himself. God walks with the simple, reveals Himself
to the humble, gives understanding to the feeble, opens His meaning to
pure minds, and hides His grace from the inquisitive and proud. Human
reason is weak and may be deceived, but true faith cannot be deceived.

"All reason and natural investigation ought to follow faith, and not
precede it nor impair it. For faith and love excel here most of all, and
work in hidden ways in, this most holy and transcendent sacrament. The
eternal and immeasurable God of infinite power does great and
inscrutable things in heaven and in earth, and there is no finding out
of His wonderful works. If the works of God were such that they could
easily be seized by human reason, they would not deserve to be called
wonderful or ineffable."

* * * * *

THE KORAN

The Koran, the sacred book of Islam, and of more than a
hundred millions of men, is the least original of all existing
sacred books. Muslims agree in believing that it is from
beginning to end, and word for word, inspired; and that it
existed before the Creation on what is called the "Preserved
Tablet." This tablet was brought by the Archangel Gabriel from
the highest to the lowest heaven, whence it was dictated sura
[chapter] by sura, verse by verse, and word by word, to the
Prophet Muhammad. Its matter is, however, taken for the most
part from the Old Testament, especially the narrative portions
of the Pentateuch; from the New Testament; from the traditions
of the ancient Arabs; and also from Zoroastrian and other
scriptures or traditions. It is not likely that Muhammad used
literary sources, except in a small measure. But there were
Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and others in and around
Arabia, and he must have learned from their lips the principal
doctrines of their respective religions. Nevertheless,
planless and fragmentary compilation though it be, the Kor