to attain to the knowledge of God Himself by studying His word committed to them. For man's true and eternal happiness is dependent upon a knowledge of his Creator. But no one can know the invisible God, who is far beyond our thought and cannot be comprehended by our finite reason, except through God's revelation of Himself. As far as the divine revelation could be contained in a book, it is given to men through the prophets in the verses of the word (كلام) of God, that is to say, in the Old and the New Testament, the holy Scriptures.

The Lord Jesus Christ is by far the greatest of all the prophets; nay rather, He is far more than a. prophet, as will be shown further on. Every one, therefore, who is a seeker after the truth, and desires to attain to the knowledge of God Most High, will assuredly strive with all his might to know the Lord Jesus and to discover His real nature, status and dignity. And if any one aid him in gaining this important and necessary knowledge, doubtless the truth-seeker will be glad and grateful. Accordingly the object of this treatise is, with God's help, to afford assistance in this matter to those of our Muslim brothers who are heartily desirous of finding the truth.

The writer of this little book is well aware that Muslims are not altogether unacquainted with Christ, and that they claim that they believe in Him. Yet from their books and from conversation

with them the writer knows well that their knowledge about Him is imperfect, and that, therefore, their reverence for Him is far from what it should be. For they account Him as one of the prophets, though by no means an ordinary prophet, since they number Him among the six great messengers of God who brought new revelations, and they call Him by higher titles than are given to any other prophet, namely, 'The Word of God' (كلمة الله) and 'The Spirit of God' (روح الله). Yet they do not assign to Him the position and dignity to which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself most clearly and repeatedly laid claim, nor do they accept this claim as true. Therefore their belief in regard to Christ is defective, and differs very much from the faith of us Christians; for Christians, in accordance with Christ's own teaching and that of His Apostles, believe Him to be not only superior to all the prophets but also higher in nature and dignity than the whole creation. This difference of opinion has, from of old and even up to the present time, been a fruitful cause of disputation between Muslims and Christians. It has even led to enmity between them.

One chief reason why these disputes have arisen is because for the most part our Muslim brethren have never sufficiently and without prejudice studied the subject as it is stated in the Old and the New. Testament. They have been prevented from doing