'Man's part Is plain, to send love forth, astray, perhaps, No matter:--He has done his part.' ROBERT BROWNING. If this book has carried its readers along any distance at all they will have recognized two facts: Islam's tremendous power, not only as a sword, but as a creed, and Islam's failure to lift nations and men up to a higher life. There is one truth yet which we must face, and perhaps we shall see its meaning best if we turn it into parable. [Sidenote: A Parable.] There was a great university once that numbered many teachers and a myriad scholars. The teachers were, for the most part, wise and good and apt to teach, but the wisest would confess that there was much he did not know, whole realms of knowledge he had never seen. Their teachings varied very greatly; but most of the {137} wisest and best agreed in foretelling a Teacher to come, wiser and truer than them all, teaching not as they from their own little corners of the truth, but gathering up, as it were, the light of their shaded and coloured lanterns into the white light of a glorious sun. So they foretold Him, and so He came. And when He taught, the scholars said: 'Did ever man speak like this Man?' and as they read His life they saw the Truth in practice. Men were no more just creatures of this earth: they had come from God, and God had come from Heaven to win them back to Himself. The good and the wise teachers of the university then no longer pointed on to the One Who should come: rather they took up His words and His life, taught them and expounded them, and ever found new meaning and new teaching there, and pointed ever up to Him. Till at last there arose another teacher, who, learning something of what the Great Teacher had taught, began to think that because he knew a little he was all-wise--yes, even wiser than He. Men gathered to listen to his teaching. And what did he proclaim? Something of the truths of {138} the Great Teacher, with a difference. And what was that difference? No thoughtful man has ever yet been found to maintain that his teaching was more sublime, _but it was easier_. Had the Great Teacher taught that there was one God? So did he--the later teacher--but his God was more of a despot than a Father. Had the Great Teacher taught a Heaven of spiritual life? He promised a Heaven too, but one of carnal pleasure. Had the Great Teacher taught men to worship in spirit and in truth? He taught prayer, but he added that a prayer at Mecca was worth more than elsewhere. Had the Great Teacher taught men to pray without ceasing? He taught men to pray five times a day. Had the Great Teacher called men to be pure in heart? He made provision for men unwilling to be pure. Had the Great Teacher raised Woman's position? He gave her certain rights over property, but no honour.