2. Mohamedism artfully accommodated itself to the prejudices and passions of men: Christianity directly contravened them.

In the system which Mohamed introduced there was much to gratify the pride of the intellect. While he retained that great fundamental principle-the unity of God, and professed that it was one leading object of his mission to restore it from the corruption and obscurity into which it had been thrown, he rejected all the essential truths of Christianity. The doctrine of the Trinity, of the deity and atonement of Jesus Christ, of justification by faith, and sanctification by the Spirit, in short all those truths which are peculiarly evangelical, and which require human Reason to yield up her lofty pretensions and to believe on the simple authority of "Thus saith the Lord;'-make no part of the Mohamedan creed. Whatever absurdities his followers may have to receive upon his own authority, and they are neither few nor small,-he aims to bring down the doctrines of religion to a level with their comprehension; and the offence of the cross he has studiously kept out of their way. So also he has consulted the depraved inclinations and sensual appetites of men; especially in his doctrine of rewards and punishments; representing the joys of Heaven to consist in a course of unbounded sensual indulgence, and the miseries of Hell in a scene of mere physical deprivation and torture. In short, his system was most warily devised to appeal to the hopes and fears of man as a sensual being: he well knew by experience as well as observation the power of the animal appetites; and the importance which he gave to this was not less an evidence of his sagacity than a means of his

success.

I have spoken of Mohamedism as falling in with the general tendencies of man's corrupt nature: let me speak of it now more particularly as being accommodated to the different religious classes to whom it was addressed. Mohamed did not pretend to offer to the world a new religion, distinct from all that had preceded it, or that then existed; on the contrary, he professed to recognise the existence of the other prevailing systems, and to incorporate whatever was true and useful in them into his own. With the Jew he maintained the divine authority of the Old Testament scriptures and the institutions of Moses; with the Christian he acknowledged the divine mission of Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel; and the idolater he flattered into the reception of his system by professedly leaving him to his idolatrous ceremonies, and endeavouring to render them in some instances more impressive and imposing. In this way provision was made for conciliating the several classes; so that the Jew, the Pagan, and the Christian, could all unite in a system which seemed to recognise the peculiarities of each, and professed to be an improvement upon all.

Christianity, whether considered in reference to the general corrupt tendencies of human nature, or to the particular prejudices which existed among different classes, never manifested in the least degree a spirit of accommodation. She proclaimed doctrines which were pre-eminently fitted to humble the pride of the intellect,—— doctrines too deep for human Reason to fathom; and yet she required that they should be implicitly received on the simple testimony of God. She enjoined duties which were at war with every corrupt principle of our nature, and required the performance of them on the penalty of everlasting death. She fearlessly attacked

sin in every form and in every condition, and was as unsparing in her denunciations upon impenitence among the great and the mighty as the insignificant and obscure. She would not consent to the least modification of the terms on which her blessings were offered; and she distinctly and every where proclaimed, that any thing short of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, would leave man to encounter the woes of the second death.

The two great classes with which Christianity was conversant were Jews and Heathen; but in respect to neither of them did she ever exhibit the semblance of a compromising spirit. Upon the two leading sects among the Jews she early, and steadily, and perseveringly, made war; encountering the infidelity of the Sadducees with the doctrine of a future state and the resurrection from the dead, and the self-righteousness of the Pharisees with the most searching and pungent exhibitions of the rottenness of their character. The Gentiles would have readily enough received her, if they had not been offended by her exclusiveness: if she would have consented to come in on the same terms with the many other systems which were in vogue among them, no doubt she might have been tolerated, and might have taken her chance for becoming the popular religion: but she had no ear for the voice of flattery; she could not live among systems of idolatry for any other purpose than to demolish them; and her intention to do this,— to assail the very principalities of Paganism, she proclaimed from the house tops. She told the world at the outset what she had come to do; and, whether among Jews or Gentiles, she remained inflexible in her purpose to do it. Does not this look as if she were conscious that she had power to withstand all the opposition which

an honest avowal of her purposes would awaken? Does it not indicate a full conviction that she had no occasion, as certainly she had no disposition, to abate at all from the holiness of her requisitions? If she had not felt that she was girded with Omnipotence, would she not, at least in the beginning, have shown herself more timid and compromising? Would not Mohamed have inevitably ruined his cause, if he had commenced his career by thus openly and boldly opposing the strongest passions and propensities of human nature?

3. Mohamedism made great use of national pride: Christianity mortified it.

We all know with how much power this principle sometimes operates; how, for a time, it gets complete dominion of the soul; and, in the bright visions of a country's glory, the ties of near relationship, and all private and personal interests, are forgotten. It was a feeling of patriotism, of the most hallowed kind indeed, which led to that beautiful exclamation of the devout Psalmist, while he was mourning amidst the scenes of his captivity-"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." And who especially that has ever been in a distant land, with the ocean rolling between him and his father's sepulchres, has not felt his bosom thrill at the thought of his native country, and heard her praises spoken with as much delight, and her honour assailed with as much indignation, as if the voice of eulogy or the voice of detraction had been lifted in respect to his bosom friend? To this principle, so powerful in its operations, Mohamed constantly appealed; and that too under circumstances the most favourable to his success. The Arabians as a na

tion had long been in a depressed state, and had even been distinguished for ignorance and barbarism; and when the thought of an extensive dominion was suggested to them, it came over them with an exhilirating freshness which at once prepared them for bold and vigorous action. Looking down the vista of years, they saw their country rising from the dust, and girding herself with glory; and as her victorious leader advanced in his march, they beheld the surrounding nations paying their homage at his feet. Naturally fierce and warlike, they valued most the laurels that were gathered in battle and dyed with blood; and in the prospect of victory in the cause of their country's greatness, the thought of dying became too unimportant to occupy them for a moment. Mohamed kept their eye steadily fixed on this dazzling object; he cheered them at every step by the reflection that they were moving onward to national glory; and as they beheld their expectations gradually realized, they gathered fresh courage to encounter fresh opposition.

Christianity, instead of bringing the principle of national pride to her aid, met it with a most cutting rebuke. The Jews were proud enough of the distinction they had already enjoyed for so many ages as the peculiar people of God; but it was the future coming of Messiah as a victorious temporal prince, to deliver them from the Roman yoke, and raise them to more than their ancient greatness, which constituted the object of their highest ambition. And the time had come which their own prophecies had marked out as the period of his advent. It was just when every heart was beating in joyful expectation of the illustrious personage who was coming, as they imagined, to effect their deliverance, that Jesus appeared; and his very first business was, not to flatter, but to humble, them ;-not to remind them of the glory