THE HESPERIAN.
their country and good government in the future will be as
surcd. It behooves every patriotic American to try to instil patri
otism into others in order that the evils confronting us today
may be solved and result in benefitting humanity. If these
evils arc cradicted wc will have a nation that will be an honor
to the memory of those who, a little over n quarter of a ccn
tury ago, died while annihilating that greatest of all evils,
slavery.
LITERARY.
Along with the growth of sentiments of toleration in the
breasts of those who profess themselves Christians has come
an increasing desire to investigate the fundamental doctrines
of other systems of religion. The day when those were de
nounced as heretics who had the presumption to suppose that
some good elements might be found even in other religions
than Christianity, is separated by a wide space from the pres
ent when it is becoming more and more customary not to
lorm one's religious opinions at the dictation of any hierarchy,
but by weighing and comparing the elements of all religions,
accepting the good and rejecting the bad, in whatever system
that good or bad be found.
The foregoing is illustrated by the amount of effort ex
pended now as compared with former times in attempts to
form an accurate conception of the merits and defects of one
of Christianity's most deadly adversaries, the Mahometan re
ligion. In the Middle Ages and, indeed, almost up to the
present the followers of Christ, strong in their own faith and
resentful of the claims of all other religions, felt no desire to
investigate that which they knew beforehand to be filled with
iniquity. The present century, however, has witnessed even
clergymen depart from traditional custom, making earnest
and prolonged efforts to penetrate to the heart of other iclig
ions, and to form an accurate conception of the life Jnd merits
of their founders. Accordingly, almost down to the present
the founder of Mahometanism has been represented solely as
a conscious impostcr, a man whose marvelous success as a
writer and leader of his fellow countrymen was the outcome
of Satanic aid.
At the time when Mahometanism was contending witb
Christianity for the nastery in Europe, the leaders of the
forces of Christianity many have considered that they were
performing a pious duty in seeking to undermine the influ
encc of the prophet of Arabia by misrepresenting his conduct
and his aims. Now happily Mahometanism shows itself in
capable of further aggressions, and Christianity no longer con
tends with it for very existence. Hence no valid excuse can
now be offered for seeking to belittle the genius of Mahomet,
and for withholding from him whatever praise is his due.
It is trite to observe that he is to be judged only by the
standard of his time and country; trite but none the less ne
cessary. For lest a person be continually watchful he will
unconsciously measure an ancient personage by present
standards. Furthermore, one must discriminate between
Mahometanism as it is to day, and the religion as its founder;
just as one must not regard as essential to true Christianity
all the fantastic beliefs that have found credence since the
Christian era began.
Mahomet was born at a time when Arabians were idola
tors sunk in the most debasing superstition. Arabia was the
home of the persecuted of all sects, who neglected no oppor
tunity to make proselytes. As in religion, so in political af
fairs, Arabia was the seat of the most frightful discord. Rob
bery, private warfare, and thirst for revenge on all enemies
seemed to preclude all possibility of union. Men gloried in
the unrestrained freedom that had been the proudest legacy
of long lines of rnccstors.
Far different was the condition of Arabia sixty years after
wards. At that time Mahomet ruled absolutely the destinies
of nearly all Arabians. The energy previously expended in
private warfatc was now to be directed to the subjugation ol
n world. Arabians were united by the oidy bond that could
hold them together, the tic of common religious belief. From
the most discordant elements Mahomet had formed a nation,
which, nflcr his death, was able, in spite of internal dissen
sion, to win by conquest in eighty years as much territory as
Rome had conquered in eight hundred! It is idle to question
Mahomet's claim to greatness as a leader of men, as one who
inspired his followers with an attachment to him that made
them brave death with impunity.
Hut wh.it was his motive in promulgating his creed? The
monk of the Middle Ages answered that throughout all his
career Mahomet was working for personal aggrandizement.
The monk answered thus because it was inconceivable to him
that any man should conscientiously refuse assent to the doc
trines ol his most holy Christian religion. Some men to-day
labor under the delusion that to find any good in an antagon
ist of Christianity is impious; and hence at once set down
Mahomet as a conscious impostcr. Furthermore, blinded
bigots have denounced as infidels the Milwans and Sales of
Arabic learning, because, forsooth, their investigations had led
them to consider Mahomet solely as an enthusiast, the victim
of hallucination.
Even those who take the unfavorable view of his motive
admit that in the early years ol his mission there is little evi
dence that he was working only for private ends. Duringthc
first thirteen years of his mission he preached to the idola
trous Meccans a morality and religion incomparably superior
to that which they already possessed. He had voluntarily
forsaken the high estate to which he had been born.' He re
ceived in return for thirteen weary years no recompense but
the gibes and threats of the obdurate Meccans. Such per
sistency in defeat does not often characterize the one con
scious of the falscty of his pretentions. There is no reason
able doubt that at this period of his life he was honest and
sincere, a man who had the most unquestioning faith in what
he preached.
Victory came suddenly after long years of disheartening
defeat; and as in the case of many another man it turned his
head. He still had the same object in view. But his later
life is characterized by unscmpulousncss as to the means he
employed to attain his object. It was after he had entered
on his career of victory that he appealed to the sword in order
to gain proselytes; that he massacred the stubborn Jews,
who would not accept his religion; that he exchanged meek
appeals for bare toleration to imperious demands of submis
sion. From this time, in striking contrast to the purity of his
earlier years, his domestic life was sullied by vice. 'In some
instances he claimed exemption from the restrictions he laid
upon his followers. All this is doubly blameworthy in one
claiming to be God's prophet.
Rut it is not to be inferred from these facts that he ccasid
to believe himself called of God to reform the world and
bring it back to monotheism, Irom which all, even Christians,
he believed had departed. What seems in his actions so in
consistent may often be explained, and explained alone, by the
supposition that he was laboring under hallucination. His
appeal to the sword have no other religious reformers done
likewise? One believing himself commissioned to call the