the institutions of the Gospel; yet was he in advance, far in advance, immeasurably far in advance, of his people. He felt strongly solicitous to reform the national religion, to destroy idolatry, to abolish the cruel rites. and ceremonies of the times, and to bring the people back to the primitive faith and pure worship of the patriarchs of Abraham, and of Ishmael, and of Moses. His interest in the subject became intense; his retirement became protracted; his meditations became deep and serious. He felt called to become a reformer among the people. He was moved by influences he could not resist, to undertake the hazardous enterprise of changing the opinions and of subverting the long-established usages of the nation. In the rapturous ecstasies in which he fell, during his hours of lonely meditation, believing himself called by the sovereign One, Creator of the universe and Ruler of men, to subvert idolatry and restore the pure worship of Jehovah, he might easily fancy himself favored with heavenly visions.

Returning home one evening, from a day of dreamy reverie, spent in a solitary cave among the mountains, fasting, lying on his back on the ground, his face enveloped in a mantle, engaged deeply in prayer and meditation, he told his wife there appeared to him a miraculous manifestation—the angel Gabriel-announcing to him the appointment as prophet of the Most High. He expressed, however, some doubt of the reality of the manifestation. It might be a dream, though it appeared to him a reality. To his devoted wife his character had always appeared perfect, his motives sincere, and his conduct honorable. She had unlimited confidence in him. To her his unimpeachable character seemed satisfactory evidence of his divine mission. Joyfully, therefore, she received him in his new character as prophet of God, and encouraged him to doubt not the heavenly vision,

but to go boldly forward in the work committed to him.

He then He invited

There were

Cheered by the influence of his amiable wife, he ventured to communicate the revelation, which he, no doubt, sincerely thought made to him, to a few of his personal friends. He soon gained three other converts to the new faith---his servant, Zeid; his youthful cousin, Ali; and Abubeker, a respectable citizen of Mecca. determined to proclaim openly his mission. his kinsfolk to a feast at his own house. present about forty persons. After some time spent in eating and in social conversation, Mahomet solemnly arose in their midst, and declared to them his mission He exposed the folly and the wickedness of idolatry, severely ridiculed the absurdities of popular belief, eulogized the faith of the ancient patriarchs, and told them he was commissioned by God to reclaim them to the religion of Abraham, and of Moses, and of the prophets. But they laughed him to scorn. They pronounced him a fanatic, to whose visionary harangues no sane man should for a moment listen.

Mahomet, however, stood dauntless, and confident in the truth of his doctrines and the divinity of his mission. Being rejected by his kinsfolk, he appealed to the people, and boldly proclaimed his mission, and unceasingly lifted up his voice of warning in the streets of Mecca, and in the public places. He was zealous and eloquent. He plied the force of reasoning; he appealed to the conscience; he touched the heart. The people listened, and many of them believed.

The tribe of Arabians to which Mahomet belonged was of priestly prerogative. To it was consigned the administration of religious affairs. They began to fear their craft might be in danger. Mahomet was becoming popular. Should he succeed in undermining and over

throwing the established religion, their occupation would be gone. They resolved, therefore, to crush him. They first charged him with heresy and apostasy. But he still made converts. They then entered into a vow of proscription, withdrawing all business and social intercourse from him and his family, till he should cease inveighing against the religious usages, and declaiming against the religious faith of the country. But the league, though faithfully kept and strictly enforced by the confederates, had no influence on Mahomet. Still he preached, and still the people believed. Then they resolved to end his troublesome pretensions by assassination, and appointed a large committee to carry out the plot. The conspirators surrounded his house in the night, intending to assassinate him whenever he should go out in the morning. But he had been informed of the stratagem, and had escaped, and hid himself, with his faithful adherent, Abubeker, in a cave. In the morning the assassins, finding he had eluded them, went in pursuit of them, and passed right by the mouth of the cave in which the fugitives were concealed. As Abubeker heard them tramping about the cavern, he whispered in terror to Mahomet, "There are many of them, and only two of us." Say, rather, three of us," said the fearless Mahomet; "for God is here." As soon as his pursuers were gone, Mahomet arose, left his cave, and fled, in great haste, to Medina, where he was gladly received and chivalrously protected. The flight to Medina is called the hegira, and is the era from which time is reckoned in Mahometan countries.

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Immediately on getting fairly established in Medina, he built, laboring at it with his own hands, a house of worship, in which he preached and enforced his doctrines. Converts were rapidly multiplied. He soon found himself at the head of a powerful and enthusi

ミ

astic party, ready to go with him to battle, to prison, or to death.

Thus far we find in his course little to censure and much to approve. But the means which he afterward used to increase his influence, and to propagate his religious system, were "evil, only evil, and that continually." With the design evidently of imposing on the credulity of his followers, he pretended to receive frequent revelations from Heaven; and for the purpose of punishing his persecutors, and enforcing his doctrines, he marshaled his followers, and went forth to battle against the unbelievers, whom he conquered in a series of brilliant engagements, till all Arabia lay prostrate before him and submissive to him.

Far be from me the disposition to approve of imposture or of war, yet would I not withhold my admiration from one who, in a dark age, and among a barbarous people, by the energies of his own mind, without the influence of friends or the advantages of education, dared to undertake, and succeeded in establishing, reform in the religion and the usages of his people. Nor would I require of Mahomet a character founded on the model of Christianity, or of the Greek and Roman philosophy Of Christianity he knew theoretically little, and experimentally nothing. Of Grecian literature and Roman civilization he was profoundly ignorant. More justly might we compare him with the Montezumas of Mexico, or the Incas of Peru, or the Indian brave of the North American forests. Nor would I withhold from him the meed of praise for many private virtues. He maintained, according to the moral code of the country and the times, an unsullied reputation. In the midst of his clevation and his power, he lived in very simple style, affecting no dignity of state, putting on no airs, and indulging in no luxurious living. Considering the age

in which he lived, and the society with whom he associated, I must pronounce him a remarkable man, of consummate talents, and of many amiable virtues.

But whatever estimate we may place on the character of Mahomet, none will, none can deny, that his system of religion, even in its worst form, was vastly superior, both in theory and in practice, to the Arabian idolatry. Nor was Mahometanism confined in space to Arabia, nor in time to the cycle of the sixth century. His successors ran a brilliant race, and erected a throne of dazzling renown, of irresistible power, and of indefinite duration. A century from the death of the Prophet had passed, and the Mahometan empire extended from the Indus to the Atlantic. Eight centuries had passed, and the renowned empire of the eastern Cæsars, with all its wealth and magnificence, was absorbed in the Saracen domain. Twelve centuries have passed, and the end is not yet. The crescent yet waves over the palaces of the city of Constantine, on the Bosphorus, over the valley of the Nile, and over Jerusalem, once the city of the great King.

It may yet be too early for us to solve the providential problem presented in the history of Mahometanism. Some other observer, placed on a point of time thousands of years now future, may be able, looking back over the past, and reading the observations there recorded, to calculate the end, both of time and of purpose, which the omniscient and almighty One has fixed for the winding up of the matter, and for the solution of the mystery. Till that day we must wait, patiently wait, knowing that with the Lord a thousand years are only as one day. In our interest and curiosity we may inquire, as did Daniel, the prophet, "O, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" And we may receive the same answer, "Go thy way, for the words are closed up, and sealed till the time of the end."