Life of Ahmad — Page 741
as BISHOP OF LAHORE AND ISLAM 741 this rule, and to utter nothing which could legitimately hurt the feelings of those who hold views differing from my own. When, however, I read what the Mirza Sahib has from time to time written on the subject of the Christian faith, and see with what bitterness and scurrility 170 he refers to incidents in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ as narrated in the four Gospels, which we Christians receive and reverence as part of God’s Holy Word, I can only draw the conclusion that he does not set before himself the same standard of courtesy and respect for the feelings of an opponent in controversy as that at which I have always 170 What Lefroy means by these two words can be easily understood when, in his opinion by calling himself the Messiah Ahmad as offers 'a most grievous insult and dishonour to Him Whom I worship as my Lord and Master. ' 'Is his Lordship', wrote The Review of Religions September 1902, 'unaware of the base scurrilities of the Charistian missionaries with regard to Islam and its noble founder, especially when he has himself been a missionary for so many years? Does he not know that the vilest epithets which their vocabulary affords have been heaped upon the Prophet sa of Islam by the preachers of the Gospel? The basest motives have been assigned to his words and deeds and every circumstance of his life has been cruelly distorted by the Christian carpers. Has his Lordship ever done anything to eradicate this evil trom among his missionary brethren? The scurrilous writings of the professional preachers of the Gospel have again and again stirred the blood of the Muhammadan community and it was to pour oil on troubled waters that the Messiah as sometimes wrote with a just severity, and thus afforded an exit to the excited passions of the people which would have otherwise assumed a more dangerous form'.