close contact with modern thought and civilization. It must meet these changed conditions if it is to live, and the question arises whether it can do this or not." Will it be possible to march with the current of civilization and continue to hold the teaching of the Koran and the Traditions, and will intellectual and social progress without a religious basis ever give the weary, sinful, sorrowing millions of Islam spiritual peace, or lift Mohammedan womanhood and manhood out of their degradation into the glorious inheritance of the sons of God?

IV. CHANGED ATTITUDE IN THE HOME CHURCHES TOWARDS THE MOSLEM WORLD

ence on

This introductory survey of the Moslem world as a missionary problem would not be complete if it did not call attention to the marked change in the Churches of Christendom as regards missions to Mohammedans. Dr. Robert E. Speer prepared a paper for the Cairo ConferHow to arouse the Church at home to the needs of Islam." In this paper he said that the assumption was true: "The history of missionary effort for Moslems in the past is largely an unread history. Raymund Lull's name is the name of a stranger. Mohammedanism itself is a mystery to the average Christian in America and even to Christians of far more than average intelligence. They have never read the Koran. They do not know what Mohammed taught. Popular ideas of Moslem lands and people are grotesque in their crude ignorance.

. In addition to great general ignorance about Mohammedanism and the Mohammedan lands the impression prevails that Islam is the next best religion to Christianity in its knowledge of God, and that its adherents are so devoted to it as to be unconvertible to the Christian faith." There is no doubt that his statement summed up the situation. He went on to point out the

causes of this general ignorance and lack of interest. As the chief cause he mentioned the embargo laid upon home workers by missionaries among the Mohammedans. The Church was ignorant of the facts in the case because she was kept in ignorance. The second reason which he gave why the Church at home was not aroused was: "The missions on the field are not aroused to the immediate duty and urgency of this work;" and the third reason he suggested was the lack of missionary books dealing with the Moslem problem.

The Cairo Conference marked a new era in Moslem evangelization because it removed the embargo, emboldened workers to present the facts, kindled their faith, and gave to many the pen of ready writers to set the facts and the appeal before the home Churches. The Cairo Conference itself indeed was held with apprehension on the part of some who were reluctant members of it, and who feared the publication of any of its proceedings. There were those who hesitated to identify themselves with the Conference for fear the opposition of Moslem governments might thereby be aroused; but no such results followed. On the contrary, the Christian world has been awakened as never before to the absolute need of taking in its sweep the activities of the Moslem world, and the sin and shame of long neglect and ignorance have, in a marked degree, been acknowledged and put away.

The startling political events which succeeded each other with marvellous rapidity in Western Asia and North Africa since the Cairo Conference (were they a result of its volume of prayer?) have no doubt had their influence also in calling attention to the problem. Newspapers, periodicals and reviews were full of articles in regard to the Turkish revolution, Persian nationalism, Egyptian unrest, and pan-Islamism in its relation to

international politics. All these furnished the occasion, but the Cairo Conference gave the inspiration to mission. aries, and they in their turn interpreted these events and aroused the Church to the needs of the Moslem world. The first and second volume of papers read at the Cairo Conference introduced a new flood of literature on the subject. Mission study classes took up the theme. The Central Committee on the United Study of Missions in America published a volume on "The Nearer and Farther East," of which over 45,000 copies were used in their study classes. The symposium entitled "Our Moslem Sisters," and consisting of papers prepared in connection with the Cairo Conference, had a large circulation passing through three editions and was translated into Danish, Swedish and German. The Student Volunteer Movement text-book on Islam was used throughout the colleges in America, and was translated into German, French and Danish. A similar text-book prepared by Mr. Gairdner is being widely used among the students of Great Britain and Australasia; it has also been translated into Dutch. The Young People's Missionary Movement of America sold over 50,000 copies of their text-book "The Moslem World." All of these were not read but studied.

In addition to these popular text-books on the subject, which brought the whole problem within the compass of a single volume, a score of other books have been written by missionaries since the Cairo Conference, setting forth special aspects of the subject, or appealing to the Church to meet the needs of Moslem lands. Omitting those published in Danish, Dutch, German and French (a list of which can be found in Volume VI of the Edinburgh Conference Report), we would call attention to the fol lowing in English: Klein, "The Religion of Islam"; Canon Sell, "Religious Orders of Islam"; Dr. Wherry,

"Islam and Christianity in India and the Far East"; Dr. Richter, "History of Protestant Missions in the Near East"; Dr. Jessup, "Fifty-Three Years in Syria "; Dr. Washburn, "Fifty Years in Constantinople"; Dr. Wishard, "Twenty Years in Persia"; Mr. Gairdner, "Life of Douglas M. Thornton"; Dr. Barton, "Daybreak in Turkey"; Reces, "Christian Crusaders of the Twentieth Century"; Dr. Kumm, "The Sudan"; Dr. Watson, "In the Valley of the Nile" and "Egypt and the Christian Crusade"; and, last but not least, Marshall Broomhall's "Islam in China." The last volume is typical of all the others mentioned. It alone would mark a distinct step in the progress of missionary investigation of the Moslem world. It is the first book of its character in English. Scientific, critical, and based on thorough investigation, it gives the public a comprehensive and readable account of a subject concerning which most church-members were in total ignorance.

Simultaneously with the output of all this missionary literature there has been a revival of interest in the problem of Islam shown by the secular press, which is as remarkable as it is significant of the urgency of the problem. A new exhaustive Encyclopedia of Islam is being published simultaneously in three languages by a number of leading Orientalists. Authoritative and scholarly in its character, with carefully prepared bibliographies, this work, although entirely neutral to missions and Christianity, will nevertheless be of great usefulness to all those who labour among Moslems. The French scientific monthly, Revue du Monde Musulman, is increasingly valuable to the student of Islam, not only because of its leading articles but more particularly on account of its careful review of the Moslem press; and the new periodical started in Germany, Der Islam, will doubtless aid in arousing the Churches of Germany to the seriousness of

the problem that faces them in the Nearer East and German East Africa.

The changed attitude of the Church towards Islam is evident not only in this enormous increase in the output of literature on the subject, but also in the place Islam has occupied in conferences and missionary gatherings. Since 1906 the Annual Conference of Foreign Mission Boards of the United States and Canada have appointed a committee on the Mohammedan problem, which is instructed to report annually in order to "call attention to the special preparation and training needed for missionaries among Moslems, and to arouse the Church and missionary societies to the needs of the unoccupied Moslem world and the peril of Islam in certain parts of Asia and Africa." This standing committee has already done much in this direction. A special conference on the Moslem problem has been held since Cairo by the missionary societies of Germany, and at the Edinburgh Conference Islam, although not represented by a special Commission, had a larger place than at any previous world conference. (See the article by Dr. Watson in "The Moslem World.")

The new missionary enterprise of the American Methodist Episcopal Church in North Africa has aroused all the constituency of this great denomination as never before to the extent and character of the Moslem problem. Other societies in America, Great Britain and on the Continent have set apart missionaries for special training to deal with this problem on their several fields, and some societies have for the first time taken up work among Moslems.

The results of the Cairo Conference were not confined to the Churches in the homeland, but are evident also in a measure in the Oriental Churches and the Churches on the mission field. An informal conference, for ex