those who, like Pharaoh, harden their hearts against Him, but a loving, compassionate, merciful, and benevolent Father to all those who truly repent and turn from their sins to serve Him in newness of life. Hence from even the few passages of the Bible which we have referred to in this chapter, the Truth-seeker, if he prayerfully studies them, will begin to see that the Holy Scriptures really satisfy the conditions of a True Revelation. This will, please God, become still more evident to him in the following chapters.

The New Testament teaches us that a true knowledge of God can be obtained only through the teaching of God's Holy Spirit, who is always ready to aid and help us. The perfect revelation of God is given in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has Himself said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John xiv. 9), and in Him alone, because He alone is the Word (كَلِمَة) of God.

CHAPTER III

MAN'S ORIGINAL CONDITION, HIS PRESENT FALLEN STATE, AND HIS NEED OF SALVATION FROM SIN AND FROM ETERNAL DEATH

HE who desires to know what is his actual condition in the sight of the Most Holy God can learn this in part from his own conscience, and still more fully from the Word of God (كلام الله). For God knows all things, and from Him no secrets are hid. "All things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Heb. iv. 13). He knows not only all that we have done, but also all that we have thought and desired during all our past life. God alone can inform us with what object He has created and preserved us alive, and on what our attainment of future happiness depends. Philosophers in their books have related their own theories and speculations upon these subjects: but our reason assures us that, if God has revealed His Will to us by Prophets and Apostles, then what He has taught us in His Word (كلام) must be far more reliable than the conclusions of human limited and fallible reasonings. Therefore, in order to learn God's gracious purpose in creating mankind, and to ascertain how men have fallen into their present condition of sin and misery, we must refer to the Holy Scriptures. Hence the writer of these pages would with all courtesy entreat his honoured readers to lay aside all prejudice and to consult the Torah, Zabur, and Injil, to which, as we have seen, their own Qur'an bears such lofty testimony. In consulting the Word (كلام) of God, however, let us do so with due reverence, humility, and earnestness of heart and purpose, beseeching the Most Merciful God to grant us spiritual