These, no less than the injunctions of the
Koran, served amply for the exigencies of the day. But they have done a
vast deal more. They have proved themselves capable of adaptation to the
most advanced stages of social development and intellectual elevation.
And, what is infinitely more, it may be claimed for the lessons embodied
in the Gospel that they have been themselves promotive, if indeed they
have not been the immediate cause, of all the most important reforms and
philanthropies that now prevail in Christendom. The principles thus laid
down contained germs endowed with the power of life and growth which,
expanding and flourishing, slowly it may be, but surely, have at the
last borne the fruits we see.
[Sidenote: Examples: slavery.
Relations between the sexes.]
Take, for example, the institution of slavery. It prevailed in the Roman
Empire at the introduction of Christianity, as it did in Arabia at the
rise of Islam. In the Moslem code, as we have seen, the practice has
been perpetuated. Slavery must be held permissible so long as the Koran
is taken to be the rule of faith. The divine sanction thus impressed
upon the institution, and the closeness with which by law and custom it
intermingles with social and domestic life, make it impossible for any
Mohammedan people to impugn slavery as contrary to sound morality or for
any body of loyal believers to advocate its abolition upon the ground
of principle.
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