We may not hope for the conversion of the Mohammedans, unless true Christianity be exemplified before them by the Oriental Churches.

To them the native Christians represent the Christian religion, and they see that these are no better than themselves.

They think them worse; and therefore the Moslem believes the Koran to be more excellent than the Bible.
It is vain to say, that the native Christians have so far departed from the truth that they do not feel the power of the Gospel, and that therefore the immorality of their lives is not to be attributed to its influence.

The Mohammedan has seen no other effect of it, and he cannot be persuaded to read the Bible to correct the evidence of his observation, and perhaps also of his own painful experience.
Hence a wise plan for the conversion of the Mohammedans of Western Asia necessarily involved, first, a mission to the Oriental Churches.

It was needful that the lights of the Gospel should once more burn on those candlesticks, that everywhere there should be living examples of the religion of Jesus Christ, that Christianity should no longer be associated in the Moslem mind with all that is sordid and base.
The continued existence of large bodies of nominal Christians among these Mohammedans, is a remarkable fact.