226. M. The "Elias" mentioned in Matt. xvii. 11 as yet to come was Muhammad.

C. See Matt. xvii. 12, 13.

227. M. In Matt. xx. 1-16 the "morning" denotes the Jewish, the "noon" the Christian, and the "evening" the Muhammadan dispensation.

C. Perhaps because the light given in Islam is so faint as compared with that given by Christ, the true Light¹ (John i. 9, viii. 12, &c.)? [It is only too true that the night has followed the evening in Muhammadan lands.]

228. M. In Matt. xxi. 33-45, and especially in verses 42, 45, we have a prophecy of Muhammad. He is "the stone which the builders rejected" (that is, the Jews and Christians), hence the kingdom of God was taken from them and given to another nation, the Arabs who believed in Muhammad.

C. More assertion, contrary to the whole context. Christ explains the prophecy as fulfilled in Himself. Strange fruits are those produced by Islam, and visible in Muslim lands.

229. M. In this Parable, the "son" (Matt. xxi. 37) is Christ, while the "Lord of the Vineyard" (verse 40) who was to come is Muhammad himself.

C. Do you then hold that Jesus was the son of Muhammad? Is that not something like the statement in the Qur'an, that the Virgin Mary was sister of Aaron the brother of the prophet Moses (Surah

XIX., Maryam, 29; Surah III., Al 'Imran, 30 sqq.)? The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans some forty years after this parable was uttered showed its meaning very clearly.

230. M. The Gospel contains the words of Jesus, and there we read the prophecy, "There cometh one mightier than I after me" (Mark i. 7). This refers to Muhammad.

C. Verse 6 shows that John the Baptist spoke these words about Christ. Cf. John i. 26, 29, 30.

231. M. Who¹ is "the prophet" mentioned in John i. 21? It is evidently not the Messiah, nor is it Elijah, for John has already denied that he is either the one or the other. It is evidently a prophet who was to come after the Messiah, i.e. the prophet mentioned in Deut. xviii. 18, that is to say, Muhammad.

C. We have already seen (§§ 202-205) that the latter passage cannot refer to Muhammad. From Matt. xvi. 14, it is evident that some of the Jews expected Jeremiah or some other one of the old prophets to reappear before the coming of the Messiah, and this explains the question. The order of the words shows that "the prophet" in John i. 21, was some one who was looked for before even Elijah, and still more before the Messiah whose forerunner Elijah was to be (Mal. iv. 5). The Jews spoke of him as "the prophet," because they were not certain which of the prophets was to come before Elijah. Some