to prove that the association of the Muslim with the damsels of Paradise is merely Platonic. This we leave unprejudiced readers of the Qur'an to decide, merely observing that most¹ Muhammadans refuse to think so. Al Baidhawi also says² that the pure wine promised in the Qur'an to the Just is called pure because the taste of it causes those who drink it to lose all inclination towards all pleasures but the delight of the Beatific Vision. Al Ghazzali³

Beatific Vision.

believes that the vision of GOD Himself morning and⁴ evening is the additional reward promised in Surah X. 27⁵ to the pious; and Muslim⁶ the Traditionalist gives the following Tradition on the authority of Suhaib, one of the "Prophet's" friends, in support of the same explanation:—"The Prophet said, 'When the people of Paradise enter Paradise, GOD Most High shall say, Do ye wish Me to give you

anything more? Then they shall say, Hast not Thou whitened our faces, hast not Thou caused us to enter Paradise and saved us from hell-fire? Then He shall raise the Veil, and they shall look upon GOD'S face, nor shall they be given anything more dear to them than to behold their Lord."'

Such passages, if we read them in a Christian sense, sound very noble, though they raise in our minds the question how they are to be reconciled with the sensual descriptions we have mentioned

Error of understanding  such phrases in a Christian sense.

above. But to understand such phrases in a Christian sense would be as great a mistake as to imagine that the Hindu religion is essentially the same as the Christian in its teaching regarding GOD and the New Birth, because in both the terms "Union with GOD"¹ and "twice born"² are used. This will be plain if we study the whole³