of Christian precept; while Islam is judged by its better precepts only,
no account being taken of the frightful shortcomings in Mohammedan
practice, even from the standard of the Koran."[123] No indictment ever
carried its proofs more conspicuously on its face than this.

E. Bosworth Smith's subsequent tribute to the relative superiority of
the Christian faith was given in an address before the Fellows of Zion's
College, February 21, 1888. I give his closing comparison entire; also
his eloquent appeal for Christian Missions in Africa. "The resemblances
between the two Creeds are indeed many and striking, as I have implied
throughout; but, if I may, once more, quote a few words which I have
used elsewhere in dealing with this question, the contrasts are even
more striking than the resemblances. The religion of Christ contains
whole fields of morality and whole realms of thought which are all but
outside the religion of Mohammed. It opens humility, purity of heart,
forgiveness of injuries, sacrifice of self, to man's moral nature; it
gives scope for toleration, development, boundless progress to his mind;
its motive power is stronger even as a friend is better than a king, and
love higher than obedience. Its realized ideals in the various paths of
human greatness have been more commanding, more many-sided, more holy,
as Averroes is below Newton, Harun below Alfred, and Ali below St. Paul.
Finally, the ideal life of all is far more elevating, far more
majestic, far more inspiring, even as the life of the founder of
Mohammedanism is below the life of the Founder of Christianity.

"If, then, we believe Christianity to be truer and purer in itself than
Islam, and than any other religion, we must needs wish others to be
partakers of it; and the effort to propagate it is thrice blessed--it
blesses him that offers, no less than him who accepts it; nay, it often
blesses him who accepts it not. The last words of a dying friend are apt
to linger in the chambers of the heart till the heart itself has ceased
to beat; and the last recorded words of the Founder of Christianity are
not likely to pass from the memory of His Church till that Church has
done its work. They are the marching orders of the Christian army; the
consolation for every past and present failure; the earnest and the
warrant, in some shape or other, of ultimate success. The value of a
Christian mission is not, therefore, to be measured by the number of its
convert