"First one relation and then another took up the cry of loving diminutives: "Oh, my little brother! Oh, my little son! Oh, my little uncle! Oh, my little heart!' etc., till sick and sad we turned away, sorer than ever over these Christless deaths, and over the barren consolation Islam offers to stricken hearts." "To stand between two religions, from one of which you have not as yet emerged, and another into which you have not yet entered, is intolerable; and twilight is pleasing only to bat-like souls.”— VICTOR HUGO" Les Misérables." "European civilization destroys one religion without substituting another in its place. It requires to be seen whether the code of Christian morality on which European civilization is based, can be dissociated from the teaching of the Christian religion.”— LORD CROMER-" Modern Egypt." "It is a terrible thing to take away a boy's faith, even if it be a faith in a mistaken creed, and I think the man who has argued or bantered a young fellow out of his faith without bringing him to a higher faith, has incurred a great responsibility."-T. L. PENNELL in "The Afghan Frontier." VII THE IMPACT OF THE WEST AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS HE old coat of arms of Tiflis, that great TH wood held by two hands. The cross is on the upper end, while below is the half moon. One hand holds the cross upright, and the other is endeavouring to uplift the half moon. This coat of arms, if it were reversed, would be typical of the situation in most Moslem lands. Two forces are operating on the world of childhood which has passed before us in the preceding chapters. Both are disintegrating forces, and at the same time formative. In some lands they have been active for many decades, in others more recently, and in some they have scarcely been felt. These two forces are Western civilization, with its good and evil, and Christian missions. The advent of a railway station, a flour-mill, or even a wheeled carriage, has been a red-letter day to the children of many Moslem lands. What must it have meant to the children of Medina when for the first time they saw the big iron monster puffing on the rails, bringing a load of pilgrims from far-off Damascus! How the boys and girls of the Pirate Coast in Oman gazed with wonder when they saw the first smoke-ship enter their harbours! Not less wonderful, often equally unexpected, and generally less welcome, was the coming of the missionary. The opening of the first hospital, or of a day school with blackboards, pictures, and books, the music of an organ, the scenes from the life of Christ shown by stereopticon, all these have stirred the dull monotony of Moslem child life in many lands and among many nations in a way which only those can realize who have themselves observed it. The Moslem world has been penetrated by travellers to its inmost recesses. Mecca and Medina, as well as Kerbela and Meshed Ali, have laid bare their secrets. "Arabia," writes Dr. James Cantine, "is being influenced as never before by the forces of commerce and trade. The Twentieth Century, with rail and steamer, is piercing and crossing the last remaining banks and bars; and soon Arabia, that great eddy in the stream of the world's progress, will find itself being carried rapidly along to the consummation of God's purpose. In northeastern Arabia the most superficial observer can easily note the growth during the last few years. The great irrigation schemes, inaugurated in the Mesopo |