19. Both the Israelites and the heathen laid the sins of the people upon the head of a scapegoat or sacrificial bull, to be borne away by it. 20. The early patriarchs were not examples of morality. Abraham told some hard falsehoods about his wife; he was guilty of great cruelty to his son Ishmael and his mother, turning them out into the desert to die. Isaac was little. better; he told the same kind of falsehoods. Jacob was a false, dishonest, tricky, dishonorable fellow. 21. Moses, though called the meekest man on the earth, proved himself directly the contrary; he showed anger, vindictiveness, cruelty, and oppression equal to the greatest tyrant that ever lived. 22. Notwithstanding Moses' great impetuosity and anger, he was able to pacify and curb Jahveh when in his tantrums, and when he wished to consume his chosen people in a moment. 23. The God of the Jews was more cruel, passionate, revengeful, fickle, and false than any other God ever heard of. 24. The Jews, though called by God his "chosen," "peculiar," and "holy" people, showed no better characteristics than the nations which surrounded them, and they were less advanced in the arts, literature, and civilization than many of the heathen. 25. Their blood-thirstiness, fondness for war, and injustice toward other tribes and nations, were surpassed by none of their enemies. 26. The divine law said to be given to the Jews is not superior to that of the Hindoos, the Persians, the Chinese,. and the Egyptians. 27. The scriptures of the Jews are not superior to the sacred writings of several other nations. 28. The Jews were no more pure, no more upright, no more religious, no more devoted, than many other nations. 29. In the erection of temples, monuments, etc., the Jews were far behind the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and the Persians. 30. Their religion possessed no superiority in any respect over those of many other nations. MOHAMMEDANISM. It is held that the more correct term for this form of religion is Islam, but as it arose solely from the teachings of Mohammed, who was born at Mecca, in Arabia, in the year 570, the term Mohammedanism seems sufficiently correct. A slight sketch of this remarkable man Mohammed is given on pages 517 and 518 in Volume I., but though some items may be repeated, it will not do to omit here a brief account of his carcer. His system of religion has flourished about twelve hundred and fifty years, and has increased with marvelous celerity. It is estimated that there are now 200,000,000 human beings who acknowledge the Arabian prophet. Previous to the advent of Mohammed the Arabians, consisting of forty or more tribes, were quite disintegrated and had never been a compact nation. They often had intertribal wars, and fought each other most bitterly. They were polytheists and idolators. They also worshiped the planets and heavenly bodies. Among their gods were Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manah, three very popular goddesses. In Mecca was a temple, or pantheon, called the Kaaba, in which were images of three hundred and sixty gods; many in the form of human beings, and some as lions, bulls, eagles, and other animals. In the center was the large Kaaba stone, which perhaps attracted more veneration then either of the gods. It was thought to be an aerolite, or air-stone, which in early times had fallen from the sky. The Arabians held that it came from Paradise, and that Abraham used to sit on it when weary. It was regarded with great veneration. Mohammed belonged to the powerful tribe of Koreish, but was of poor parentage. His father, Abdallah, died before Mohammed was born, and his mother within a very few years after. His uncle, Abu Taleb, a most excellent man, took the young child under his charge and reared him with care. With him the nephew, during his youthful days, journeyed to Yemen, Damascus, and other noted places, where he saw not a little of the world. He afterward became a shepherd, even as Moses and David are said to have done before him. "Pick me out the blackest of those berries," he cried many years after, when he became prophet and king at Medina, when he saw some people passing with berries of the wild shrub, arak "pick out the blackest, for they are sweet, even such as I was wont to gather when I tended the flocks of Mecca at Ajyad." We next find him in the employ of the rich widow Khadijah, in the capacity of agent to look after her interests and attend to commercial operations. She was well pleased with his excellent judgment and management. They became much attached, and subsequently married when he was twenty-five years of age, she being several years his senior. This placed Mohammed among the wealthy class of Mecca, and with his moral worth gave him great influence in the community, where from the purity and sincerity of his life he earned for himself the title of Al Amin, or the Faithful. Khadijah left him entirely to his meditations, relieving him of all cares of business, and allowing him play in his natural temperament, to wander as much as he pleased among the mountains which overlook Mecca, in deep study and contemplation. The attachment between Mohammed and his faithful Khadijah was very strong, and though he lived in a country where polygamy was common, he never insulted her by taking another wife to his bosom. Long afterward, when the good Khadijah was no more, and he had married the young and beautiful Ayesha, she one day put this question to him: "Now, am I not better than Khadijah? [She was a widow, old and toothless.] Do you not love me better than you did her?" "No, by Allah!" answered Mohammed, in a burst of honest gratitude; "No, by Allah. She believed in me when men despised me. In the whole world I had but one friend, and Khadijah was that friend." His biographers have but little to say of the fifteen years that elapsed between his marriage with Khadijah and the time when he proclaimed himself the prophet of the one true God. His spirit was strongly opposed to the worship of idols, his prejudices being largely in favor of the worship of Abraham. He recoiled from the corruptions that had grown up among his countrymen, and he burned to restore what he believed to be the only true religion. His days and nights were passed in deep thought. He absented himself from society, and soon gained the title of the dreamer." Amid his solitary meditations in the cave of Hera, he arrived at the conclusion, through the cloud of conflicting claims and dogmas around him, that the great truth of all was the unity of God. "Is it not possible," he asked himself, "to rescue mankind from the worship of idols, and to restore the worship of the one true God?" He seemed not desirous to establish a new religion, but to simply restore that pure theism which underlay the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Το this purpose he resolved to devote his life. Both in his sermons and in the Koran he expressly declared: "I am nothing but a public preacher. I teach the unity of God." This was his full conception of his mission, his so-called apostleship. On one occasion, when he had retired to his cave and had passed hours in deep meditation-it was on "the blessed night of El Kadr," as the Koran hath it-he saw an angel in human form, surrounded with the most brilliant light, displaying a silver roll. "Read," said the angel.. "I cannot read," said Mohammed. Again said the angel, "Read! read in the name of the Lord, who created man out of a clot of blood; read in the name of the Most High, who taught man the use of the pen, who sheds on his soul the ray of knowledge and teaches him what before he knew not." Upon this, it is said, Mohammed felt the heavenly inspiration, and read the decrees of God, which he afterward promulgated in the Koran. There also came the announcement, "O, Mohammed, of a truth thou art the prophet of God, and I am his angel Gabriel" (Vide Sura, 96). Afterward, in a nocturna dream, he was carried by Gabriel from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence in succession through six heavens to the seventh. The angel only accompanied him through six of the heavens, being afraid to intrude himself into the seventh, so Mohammed alone passed into the dread cloud that is said to forever |