"[81]
[Sidenote: Christianity compared by Christ to the works of nature.]
Such is Islam. Now what is Christianity? Listen to the prophetic words
of the Founder himself, who compares it to the works of nature:
"_So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the
ground;_
"_And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should
spring and grow up, he knoweth not how._
"_For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear._"[r]
And again:
"_Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what
comparison shall we compare it?_
"_It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the
earth, is less than all seeds that be in the earth;_
"_But when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than all
herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the
air may lodge under the shadow of it._"[s]
[Sidenote: Islam the work of man; Christianity the work of God.]
Which is _nature_, and which is _art_, let the reader judge. Which bears
the impress of man's hand, and which that of Him who "is wonderful in
counsel, and excellent in working?"
In fine, of the Arabian it may be said:
"_Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed.
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