I. Malay Muhammadanism .

The spirit of scepticism , against which theologians

have to contend in the West , is replaced in the Far
East by the curious readiness of the laity to accept
several irreconcilable faiths at one and the same time.
The Japanese , for instance , practically possess two state
creeds ; the Chinese see nothing inconsistent in a man
simultaneously being a Buddhist , an ancestor - worshipper
and a Confucian agnostic ; in the Straits Settlements ,
men who do not personally profess Christianity often
make prayers or offerings at Christian altars in the
belief that such acts may be profitable . One well-
meaning but illogical Chinaman is , in fact , reported to
have actually offered up the sacrifice of a piece of pork
at the shrine of a Mussulman saint . Under the cir-
cumstances it is not surprising that the religion of
the Straits-born Chinese should have been sarcastically
defined as " a belief in the Virgin Mary , the Prophet
all

Muhammad and the ghosts Singapore and

in

",

kindly
as

yet we may more charitably explain

it

appreciation possibility religious truth may

of

the that
not be the monopoly of any one creed
or

race
.

Muhammadanism itself intolerant allots special

is

it
;
of

to

divisions hell punishes

as

rival creeds renegade

a
,

borrow any belief from living

to

murderer and refuses

a