eive
Christianity, and that the faith of the false prophet is crumbling away,
is what I would not venture for a moment to assert. But I can state as a
fact, that in the neighbourhood of Cairo the peasant population both men
and women, are willing, and many of them eager to _listen_ to the Word
of God when it is brought before them judiciously and discreetly, as
well as with kindness and zeal." [1]

[Footnote 1: _More about Rugged Life in Egypt_, p. 210.]

Subsequent experience confirmed this view, and more than twenty years
later she remarks "It is necessary to be discreet in dealing with
Mohammedans, for if the spirit of bitterness is once aroused, the door
is shut, for the time at least, against good influences." [1] To awaken
to an experience of vital religion the ignorant, superstitious, and
spiritually lifeless Copts is a difficult task; to bring to personal
faith in Christ the bigoted Moslems is more difficult still. "A Moslem's
religion," she says, "is twined up with his political, social, domestic
life so minutely, that the whole rope, as it were, has to untwisted
before he can be free from error, and the very admixture of truth in
their book makes it harder in some respects to refute than if, like the
heathen doctrines, it was all wrong throughout. Perhaps the intense
self-righteousness of Moslems is after all the hardest point about them;
their notion that in the end all who are Islam are safe strengthens
them in this belief." [2] Nevertheless, the points of contact between the
Mohammedan faith and the Christian a wise teacher can use as pegs to
hang Christian teaching upon; and this Mary Whately's previous
experience among the ignorant and bigoted Roman Catholics of Ireland
enabled her to do with much tact. When peasants said to her, "Your book
is Christian--we don't like Christian books," she would explain that it
was God's book, and that the Koran did not forbid it to be read; and
that she wanted to tell them about Seidna Eessa (the Lord Jesus), whom
Mohammed acknowledged to be a prophet. In this way many an initial
difficulty would be overcome, and the reading, with simple explanation,
of stories from the Gospels would elicit the response, "The words are
good," and the request for the gift of a New Testament.

[Footnote 1: _Life of Mary L. Whately_, p. 109.]
[Footnote 2: _A Glimpse behind the Curtain_, p. 117.]

[Illustration: Mary L. Whately]

As soon as Miss Whately had settled in Egypt she began vi