Page 244 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

NEGLECTED ARABIA 5

easy entrance into the interior. The two governments are growing closer
together and it is quite possible that all ()man may again come under the
title of the Sultan of Muscat. May it not he the burden of our prayers
that of out id’ these villgaes in Oman may come the future evangelists for
our mission? That would not be unlike the history of other missions.
The seed has been sown these many years, and only lack of faith will keep
us from believing that the harvest will follow.”
Miss Lutton writes of continued friendliness on the part of the Muscat
women to her personally, but coldness or hostility to her message. As she
>ays. "They do not accept the message, hut tolerate the messenger. In
visiting a very sick one, when she saw me open the Bible she said, *( )li,
Noora! Do not read to me, my heart is too cold.’ Bui 1 think the real
truth was she was afraid she would suffer harm. 1 he Koran was care­
fully wrapped up and placed near her, although she could not read a word
of it. 1 have sometimes felt it harder when they ask me to read so that
it may act as a charm, or else they think it will please me, and not hurt
them!” The pressure to which our faithful converts are subjected is
graphically depicted by Miss Lutton, in speaking of Marash: '‘This sum­
mer a shopkeeper who has a shop adjoining a mosque said to him, ‘Now
that the Christians are away and you are not working, why do you not
proclaim you are a Moslem and you still believe in Islam?’ When Marash
answered him fearlessly and wisely, a blind man called from the mosque,
‘Strive with him! Do not let him blaspheme!’ and repeated several times,
'Ask forgiveness of God, you infidel!’ ”
In Bahrein, Mr. Pennings writes that the material prog res.*, is not
matched with much intellectual nor any spiritual progress. In the years
immediately succeeding the war, he writes, "some of the younger men
were quite outspoken in their doubts and desire for progress, so that some
of the older men were genuinely concerned. ()ne hears little of that these
days. The Arab mind is essentially practical and pragmatic. What is the
use of combating the prejudices of the older people and the fanaticism
(if the ignorant tor the sake of mere opinions and beliefs! It is far easier
to conform to the old customs than to advocate new ideas. Therefore one
hears little of the doubt and dissatisfaction that used to be expressed some
years ago. However, it is quite certain that Islam does not have the hold
iiii many of the better-read young men that it used to have. Their reading
ranges through a much wider field, and interest in politics and the affairs
of the surrounding Moslem nations has superseded religious interest to a
great extent. The danger that threatens Islam is not so much the efforts
and teachings of missionaries, as worldliness and agnostic materialism,
which denies the supernatural in our religion as well as in theirs. We note
that disintegrating influence in those lands which most closely border on
Kuro|>e and Western civilization. However, if anyone of them were to
become a Christian, there is little doubt he would have to face considerable fj
persecution from younger men as well as the older, because such an
acceptance of Christianity would be regarded as a reflection on the whole 1!
system of Islam.” Mr. Pennings says also that the opportunities for
direct evangelistic work are greatest in the hospital, and that the medical
work affords him most of his contacts, as wtll as being the means of the
good attendance at the Sunday services.