" It is a mighty gap from the dark and Satanic system of Islam into Christianity.....It is very different from the case of a (nominal) baptized christian sinner, although the remedy in both cases is the same, for it is Christ. But in this case you have no christian foundation to build upon. So far as your work is concerned, all must be new. You dare not take a single thing, even seemingly good, of his old system, for it is Satanic. The Koran is to us an unclean book, whose authority we dare not admit, even as a witness.....I would not quote a single sentence from it as a means of dealing with souls.
" I was puzzled, for a good while, to find some line of truth to meet the state of mind amongst Christians. If you ask a man here, Are you a Christian? he says, “Yes, thank God, I am a Christian.” And he will go on talking as piously us you can do. What I finally struck upon was very simple. I say, ' Well, my friend, if you should die today, where would you go to?' He replies, ' If my works are good, I should go to heaven; if bad, to hell.' I take him up on that, and insist to know how he estimates his works, if they have been of such a nature as to entitle him to go to heaven at once. It finally comes out that his works are not good. Well, I tell him that he would certainly go to hell, according to his own showing. We then go on to the question of man's works, as measured by the law, and from that to Christ."
“I was once spending a few days in Ramleh, Palestine. People were coming and going. A man of some intelligence came in, and asked me if it were true that the English were going to make a railway from Joppa to Jerusalem. I told him I did not know. ' Well,' he said, ' it would be a great blessing, and make business good.” &c. ' Well,' I said, “we may die before it is completed, and what then?' He replied at once, “ That would be far better, for then we should go to Christ.' His remark being unusual, it struck me? and I thought I would probe it. I replied, “Certainly being with Christ would be far better than remaining here. But will you kindly tell me how the like of you and me can attain such a great blessing?” Again he replied promptly, ' By faith and works.' “It is, then, by faith and works?' I said. ‘Yes,' he repeated, “faith alone will not do.' (It seems he was a Greek.) ' Well, now’ I said, “my friend, we must look into the matter; for if our getting to heaven depends partly on our faith, and partly on our works, we must look out that our works are of the proper kind and quality. We must have the right measure for them.' He replied, ' They must be measured by the law of God.' ‘ You are, doubtless, right,' I said; ' for if any part of our getting to heaven rests on our works, they must be according to God's law. Well, this law says we must love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourself.' 'Just so,' he replied. ' Now,' I said, “we will admit that part that speaks of love to God, and look into the matter of love to our neighbor. If your house were on fire, and that of your neighbor at the same time, you will throw one jar of water on the fire in your own house, and the next on the burning in your neighbor's. If you receive one pound, you will divide it with your neighbor.’ &c. He was astonished, and said, “Well, if that be true, hell is nearer to us all than heaven;' and bade me good-day; and I saw no more of him.
“A talk of this kind never fails to gain the attention of (nominal) Christians here, but would have no effect whatever on a Mohammedan..... The god the Mohammedan talks about is not the true God at all. His creed is, There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the apostle of God. That is, the god he owns has spoken and revealed himself by Mohammed. But this is not the God I know. Many Protestants seem never to have doubted that Mohammedans own the true God, but are only mistaken in their way of worshipping Him.....The god Mohammed speaks of has neither holiness, love, truth, justice, or any other of the true attributes of God.....
“There are many here who are instructed in the dark acts of Satan. One, who says he is Christ, wrote mo a letter last year. It was inspired by Satan, and wonderfully adapted to deceive. I burned it. He referred to little things, known only between God and my soul, and I am sure he could only have referred to them by Satanic inspiration."
When we remember the above extracts refer to those very lands where the gospel was first preached—Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—surely there is much room for grave reflection.
And if this Satanic flood of apostasy and iniquity rolls over those once favored lands, is not a still worse apostasy foretold, soon to cover the whole of the restored Roman empire? (Rev. 13) And yet men will talk in their sleep about wonderful days of progress! It is a terrible thing to give up Christ, no matter what may be accepted in His place. The wickedness and darkness of those lands should be a solemn warning to us. Perhaps the best thing that Satan used, in Mohammedan apostasy, was total abstinence. May we be aware of his wiles.
Oh, fellow-Christians, was there ever a time when we had greater need to cleave to Christ with full purpose of heart? Are there not also many in these favored lands in the same uncertainty and ignorance of a finished redemption, and justification by faith, as the nominal Christians of Syria? Is that thy state, beloved reader? Art thou nearer to heaven, or hell? Has God proclaimed to thee forgiveness of sins through Jesus, and art thou uncertain that God speaks truth to thee? Do we hear thee saying, Nay, I believe God, I believe that blessed message proclaimed to me. Then we hear God saying, Thou art justified from all things. (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39).)