Historical Statements of the Koran [pp. 195-230]

Historical Statements of the Koran.
It is daily growing more important, and will very soon be
thought imperatively necessary. Theological students who
look forward to the missionary service, are too apt to under rate one class ofdifficulties, while perhaps they magnify an other. You will find a man hesitating whether he shall run
the risk of being bastinadoed, or of dying with the plague,
while he forgets that if he had a perfect security against in fection, and corporeal violence, he might still be disappointed
and defeated in his whole design. That a man should go to
convert the Moslems, with an impression on his mind, that
they are fools or children, is not merely proof of ignorance
on his part, but a melancholy omen for the cause which he
espouses. It would be well, therefore, if at this time, when
the Mohammedans are objects of so much attention to the
friends of missions, a little preparatory study could be spent
upon the Koran. It is certainly desirable that he who undertakes the instruction of a Mussulman, should know what the
false opinions are which he must combat. If he expects to
find the mind of his catechumen a tabula rasa on the subject
of religion, he will find himself most grievously at fault.
Such strength of prejudice has rarely been exhibited, as that
which is the product of a thorough education in the doctrines
of Mohammed, aggravated, as it must be, by the fixed belief
of fatalism. No less erroneous, on the other hand, is the
opinion, that the Moslem's creed is wholly false, and must
be utterly destroyed before the truth can find admission.
There are two questions, therefore, which the missionary
should know how to answer: what are the peculiar dogmas of Mohammed's system? and what has it in common
with the true religion? It ought to be considered as a great
advantage, that the facts of sacred.history are not wholly unknown to the Mohammedans. For though they may consider our intelligence as borrowed from their Book, it is, neverless, something to be able to appeal to striking facts, by way
of illustration, confirmation, or induction. This might,
as it were, present a vulnerable point, when all the rest is
shielded in impenetrable prejudice. A beginning might be
made by a judicious use of facts which they believe as well
as we, from which occasion might be taken to correct the
errors of Mohammed's narrative, and eventually to demonstrate and explain important truths.
What are these facts, then? or, in other words, how large a
portion of the sacred history has been wrought into the Ko
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