er, fastings and sacrifices. One night spent in the
holy armies of Islam will be rewarded by Allah more than human reason
can think. Everyone that falls in battle is received in heaven as a
martyr and rewarded for his devotion to the faith. After Mohammed's
death, his successor became aggressive as his forces grew stronger. His
command to his armies was: "Before you is paradise, behind you is
hell." Inspired by this belief, the wild and superstitious Arabs rushed
forward and subdued Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The churches in the
large cities of these lands were converted into mosques for the worship
of Mohammed. In 668 and 717 they besieged Constantinople and in 707
subdued the northern provinces of Africa. In 711 they established a
Califat in Spain at Cordova. The Arabs crossed the Pyrenees and made
the threat that they would soon stable their horses in St. Paul's
cathedral at Rome. But they were defeated by Charles Martel in 732.
Ferdinand drove them out of Spain into Africa. In the East the Moslems
had, in the ninth century subdued Persia, Afghan, Bloogiston, a large
part of India, also a large part of Brahmanism and Buddhism. The Turks
were conquered in the eleventh century; the Mongols in the thirteenth
century. Constantinople fell into the hands of the unspeakable Turks in
1453. The magnificent church of St. Sophia in which Chrysostom preached
the gospel with a fiery tongue and many church fathers chanted in it
the true Word of God was converted into a mosque. To-day the Koran is
read there in instead of the gospel. The Sultan occupies the throne of
Constantine and calls himself the "shadow of Almighty," boasts in his
fanatical religion, and scorns Christian powers. On the other hand the
Christian powers look at him with the cold spirit of Christianity but I
believe the time will come and is near when the Gospel will be preached
again in the church of St. Sophia instead of the Koran.

CHAPTER III.

THE MOHAMMEDAN RELIGION.

The Koran is the Mohammedan's holy bible, creed, and code of laws. The
holy Koran was delivered to Mohammed neither in graven tablets of
stone, nor by cloven tongues of fire, but it was engraven on Mohammed's
heart and was communicated by his tongue to the Arabs. His heart was
the Sinai where he received his revelation and his tablets of stone
were the hearts of believers. The Koran contains 114 chapters and 6225
verses. Each chapter begins with formula, "In the name of God the
merc