to fear but little from such contemptible efforts, which, even had they been known to his followers, would most probably have served only to confirm them in their unbelief. In truth, the spirit of the age was adverse to any spiritual success. Clogged and obscured by error, the Church, as well in the East as in the West, had abandoned her vantage ground, and what but defeat and dishonour were to be looked for? We are not prepared, indeed, to say that the entire labours of the Christian world, from the time of Mohammed to the Reformation, were of this futile character. On the contrary, we believe that devoted Christians, during this interval, frequently and with zeal attempted the conversion of the Mussulmans ; but it is a melancholy reflection that we have not a single account of their success, or of any beneficial effects resulting from their efforts. We find, it is true, in the twelfth century, the eastern Emperor erasing from his creed the anathema against the god of Mohammed, as likely to offend those Mohammedans who had embraced, or were disposed to embrace, Christianity; but, except for such transient hints, we should hardly be aware that the controversy was going on; no fruits at least give token of vitality.¹

How, then, are we to account for the want of success which characterised these long ages, in which neither party gained ground in the grand and momentous struggle? There are four causes to which it may be attributed. The first and chiefest was the superstition which had already gained ground in the Church before the rise of Islam, and which afterwards so rapidly increased and sprang up so thickly, crippling its exertions and stifling its efforts. The use of images and pictures, so hateful to the Moslem, and other superstitious practices of the Church, froze the current, which should have flowed unceasingly, diffusing to the nations around the genial and healing streams of Christianity. Again, the want of any communication or interchange of sentiment, the want even of the usual offices of courtesy between the contending parties, occasioned partly by the mutual intolerance which separated them, and partly by political circumstances,