In considering the attitude of Moslem governments to Christian missions, our remarks will have reference chiefly to the attitude of Central Asian governments, and specially of Afghanistan.

We shall be led to wrong conclusions if we think of Afghanistan only as an isolated Moslem government with, at the most, a population of five million people. Its significance is great because of its geographical position in the heart of Central Asia, which subjects it to the reflex influence of a far-reaching Mohammedan population on all sides. It is the core and homogeneous centre of a great extended area of contiguous countries, Moslem in belief, whether or not under influences or governments of other nationalities, Turkestan, Persia, Baluchistan, Chitral, Kashmir, etc., so that Afghanistan represents what is to them the ideal spectacle of an orthodox Moslem ruler, free and independent ruling over Moslem subjects, standing as a model for other countries. It must be remembered that at present "No power has any right to interfere in its administration, although it is obvious that certain contingencies might alter its position in this respect. The government of Afghanistan owes no national debt, nor any war indemnity, and the Emir is not hampered by any capitulations with foreign governments." To the faithful, Afghanistan has much the same theological position and prestige in the East as Turkey in the West, and the Emir of Afghanistan is supported in the aloofness of his relations with Christian rulers, whether England on the one hand or Russia on the other, by the unanimous sentiment of races that people the vast areas of Central Asia surrounding his country. Further, the universal approval of his co-religionists in countries that are under foreign rule tends to strengthen him in the continuance of this policy. The Mohammedan centres on the east-Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan-may

be under Chinese rule, and Bokhara on the north with its famous Mohammedan university may be under the suzerainty of Russia, but foreign rule affects their beliefs as little as England's rule over Malta has affected the Roman Catholic creed of that island, in fact the tendency of the foreign rule of an alien faith may be only to inten. sify the national belief by throwing into it all the strength of a pent up and otherwise inactive patriotism.

As an instance in illustration of this point it will be recalled that when the present Emir, Hubbibullah, recently visited India, he was even surprised at the enthusiasm with which he was hailed with acclaim by fiftyseven million Sunnis of India as their spiritual leader. It was to them in fact what the visit of the Pope would be to Ireland. On his part, true to his faith wherever he went, he strengthened the hands and encouraged the hearts of his co-religionists, and never failed at the stated hours to adjourn to the nearest mosque or quiet place for prayers.

Other distinctive features of Moslem rule may be traced to the fact that the Mohammedan is eminently practical. It is the practical side of him enforced by his martial qualities that has led to such success in his relations to the races he has conquered. An example of this is seen in the sagacious enactment of Mohammed, that while no Mohammedan woman was to marry an unbeliever (which would be likely to result in the woman going over to the faith of her husband), the marriage of a Mohammedan man with women of an alien faith is so definitely encouraged that the woman is theoretically allowed to retain her own beliefs, though the children of the marriage must be followers of the prophet.

We have been taught to regard the Mohammedan as a fanatical and impossible bigot, but so practical is he that his attitude towards other faiths is enormously modified by his environment. Under rulers of alien faith, notably

in China, he has for centuries patiently accommodated him. self to the ways of his masters, adopting the dress and customs of the country and otherwise behaving as a Chinaman. At the same time his practical common sense asserted itself in the eagerness with which money was found and subscribed to buy and adopt many thousands of Chinese orphans in times of famine, who being brought up as Mohammedans, and provided with Mohammedan wives, propagated the faith and added to the number of their adherents even in that land where they have suffered such terrible persecutions. Again in Kashmir, under the rule of high-caste Hindus, where the iconoclasm of the Mohammedan must be hourly tempted by Hindu idolatry, their conduct is characterized as that of a loyal and obedient people, and the same remark applies to Chinese Turkestan, where a population almost entirely Mussulman is under the rule of the Confucian dynasty of China.

The attitude of Moslem rulers to a foreign faith is in many cases dictated by a feeling altogether apart from religion. For instance we are told of the late Emir of Afghanistan, "Abd ur Rahman being possessed by an instinctive animus against company promoters and concession-hunters, the mineral wealth of Afghanistan is at present almost entirely undeveloped." In other words he had rather that the buried wealth of his kingdom, the gold and the silver, the iron and copper ore, the lead and the coal that are known to exist should remain buried to him and his people, than have it exploited and revealed and even brought to them at the cost of a weakened authority and the probable establishment within his borders of an alien and almost inevitably hostile power with conflicting interests. If this attitude appears narrow it is nevertheless perfectly intelligible in relation to commerce, and we must therefore allow it the same degree of reasonableness in regard to foreign missions.