ve at a true
estimate of the position of women is covered by the statement that it
was impossible for him to grapple with a hopeless problem. It is
encouraging to know that, with the growing influence of Western
Christian civilisation, the condition of women in Moslem lands is
gradually improving, although the village folk still consider us to be
weak in character because we are courteous in our behaviour to them.
In Egypt, Government schools for girls are being organised, and
throughout the whole Moslem world education is spreading. The religion
of Mohammed is so clearly defined that it can never be reformed. The
only hope for the nations that are under its sway is that with the
advance of western civilisation there may be a yielding to the
influence of Christianity. It cannot be possible to enjoy the
blessings of the West while men are tyrannised by a non-progressive
religion of the East.

Just before he died Mohammed organised an expedition against the
Romans, and this in spite of sickness unto death. He had made his last
pilgrimage to Mecca, and had delivered what may be termed his final
charge to his followers. The whole tone of his address seems to have
been influenced by the thought of the proximity of death. He
emphasised the doctrines he had inculcated, showing that the Islamic
brotherhood removed all that tended to social inequality. The rich man
was no better than the poor; the aristocrat who boasted of his
ancestry, no more important in the sight of God than the lowliest
beggar. The only difference that could exist between man and man was a
difference in degree of piety. Property rights he recognised as
regarding believers, and evidently implied that unbelievers possessed
no such rights. He asked respect and humane treatment for women, and
undoubtedly manifested a desire for a better condition of affairs than
he in his lifetime had been able to establish. The subsequent illness
was probably due to the strain and anxiety of this pilgrimage. Ayesha,
the girl wife, tended him. The many stories that have been told of
these last days are not at all reliable, but it is certain that for
five days he was quite helpless and delirious. On the 7th of June, 632
A.D., ten years after the flight from Mecca, he died in the arms of
Ayesha, leaving a work that wrought havoc in the Christian Church for
centuries, and which, inspired by his immortal spirit, still exists in
unyielding enmity against the faith of the meek and l