“_They have not believed on Jesus, and have spoken against Mary a grievous calumny; and have said, Verily we have slain Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, the Apostle of God; yet they slew Him not, neither crucified Him, but He was represented by one in His likeness; ... They did not really kill Him; but God took Him up unto Himself; and God is mighty and wise ... on the day of resurrection He shall be witness against them._” It is said that Muhammad so hated the sign of the Cross, that if any article, however valuable, came into his possession bearing the mark, it was destroyed at once. The horror of the thought that Jesus should have died the abhorred death, or that God Himself should have permitted it, seems to be the argument against its having occurred. In the Quran that which is symbolized by the Cross—the approach of God to sinful man in mercy and love—is entirely lacking. There is no hint that the Christian Message of Atonement through the Gift of the Saviour’s life to God in man’s name had ever reached the Prophet. There is therefore no assurance, save the Prophet’s word for it, that God upon His far Throne, hears, or hearing answers and forgives the sin of His creatures; there is no assurance of salvation in Islam. It is a tragic story; the responsibility for which it has been the habit of Christian writers to cast largely upon Muhammad. The apportionment of guilt is not so lightly determined. 2. THE FATHER-GOD. “_To me, I confess, it seems a very considerable thing, just to believe in God; difficult indeed to avoid honestly, and not easy to accomplish worthily; a thing not lightly to profess, but rather humbly to be sought; not to be found at the end of any syllogism, but in the inmost fountains of purity and affection; not the sudden gift of the intellect, but to be earned by a loving and brave life._” “_I believe in God the Father Almighty._” These simple, solemn, tender words contain the Christian Thought of God. In the one word “Almighty” is summed up Muhammad’s idea of supreme Will and Power; the Christian prefixes a Name to the attribute which so governs the sphere of the exercise of that will and power that it is difficult to conceive that the two teachings represent the same Being. [Sidenote: Fatherhood] In the view of Him to Whom we owe the Father Idea, the All of God and the All of His universe are summed up in the Fatherhood; that is, Jesus did not think of the al-might of God as exerted from without, the oneness of Creator and Created is in His view indissoluble. The birds could not maintain their little life, nor the lilies their delicate tints, without the Father; and words fail Him to tell of the closeness of the Fatherly interest in each member of His nearer offspring. “_The very hairs of your head are numbered._” [Sidenote: The Parable of Jesus]