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of perishing in accomplishing it, I would not waver from my purpose!"

So saying, overcome by the thought that he was to be abandoned by his beloved relative, he turned away with eyes filled with tears.

"Come back, O my nephew!" exclaimed the old man, in turn broken down by emotion; "preach

whatever doctrine thou wilt. I swear to thee that not for a moment will I desert thy side!"

The opposition did not end here; though, as the sacred period of the year was approaching, hostilities were postponed for awhile. It was at about this time. that Mohammed first occupied a building facing the Kaaba belonging to a convert named Arkam, before

which the pilgrims were obliged to pass in the course. of their orthodox devotions. It became the meeting-house-the preaching station. There the doctrines of the new faith were expounded and many converts were made, so that the place was called in after times "The House of Islam."

At this period Mohammed was very desirous of engaging the influential members of the community on his side, and it is related that as he was once engrossed in conversation with one of this class, a blind man came to him, saying: "O apostle of Allah, teach me some part of that which Allah hath taught thee." In the earnestness of his desire to enlist the rich man, he was disturbed by the importunity of the poor one, and turned away with a frown. A reprimand was conveyed to him for his respect of persons in one of the suras:

[The prophet] frowned and turned his back

Because the blind man importuned :

And what shall tell thee if perchance he may be purified.

Or may be admonished and profited?

Thou dost attend on the rich,

And carest not for his cleansing ;

But thou turnest from the earnest one

Coming in the fear of Allah.

By no means!

-Sura 1xxx.

Mohammed ever after looked upon the blind man with great respect, and whenever he saw him he was. accustomed to say: "Welcome to him on whose account Allah reproved me!"

THE crowds that regularly came to worship at the Kaaba were now beginning to gather, and the opponents of Mohammed consulted as to how they should. reply to the enquiries of strangers about the "prophet" of whom they had heard.

"Let us tell them that he is a seer," said one.

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"No," promptly replied another, "he has none of the abrupt and emphatic tone of the seer, neither does he utter his sentences in their rhythmical style." "Shall we prononnce him a fool?"

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'No, his appearance would belie us."

"That he is a poet inspired by an evil jinn?" "He ignores the language of poetry."

"Shall we call him a magician!"

"He does naught supernatural; he pretends to no miracle nor magic art."

"Nay, verily, his art is simply the use of able words and of an insinuating manner."

"But we must give some explanation; we can only say that he is a new magician possessed of unknown charms, by which he brings discord into the family, separates brother from brother, son from father, and wife from husband."

This, then, was to be the policy of the opponents of the rising delusion, as these men desired to consider the doctrines held by the little band protected by Abu Talib. They posted themselves on the roads converging at Mecca; engaged in conversation with the faithful going to the Kaaba; insinuated themselves into their confidence, and warned them to beware of the father of Kasim, whom they described as a dangerous magician who might do them the utmost harm. Thus they frightened some, but, to their discomfiture, excited curiosity in the minds. of a larger number. The result was that when the devout pilgrims returned to their homes, they carried to the remotest corner of the peninsula the marvellous stories of Mohammed, the rising prophet, the magician whom no one could understand. The new movement became the staple of neighborhood gossip and of curious enquiry everywhere, and penetrated regions to which no direct effort of Mohammed could have carried it in many laborious years.

The interestwas still more increased by Abu Talib, who published in verse his complaints against the Koreishites who, in their hatred of one of its sons, had forgotten the rights of the illustrious house of Hashim. He vaunted the virtues of Mohammed; painted him as the friend of the widow and the orphan, and said:

"You lie, if you say that we will let the blood of Mohammed flow without bringing to the struggle our bows and our lances; and I swear it by the holy Kaaba!

"If you say that we will abandon him without

MEDINA COUNSELS PEACE.

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strewing the ground with our corpses, yea with the bodies of our wives and of our children!"

When the threatening news that fratricidal war was imminent, reached Medina, then called Yathrib, wise counsels of peace were sent to Mecca.

"Beware of discord," the writer said, "thrust from you the vase of which the water is bitter and dangerous! Remind yourselves of the horrors of past wars among us; he who writes to you knows but too well the horrors of those sad scenes; knowledge is the fruit of experience.

"An honorable man has adopted certain beliefs; to Allah only belongs the right to judge the conscience.

"Continue to practise the true religion; our eyes are fixed upon you.

"Worship Allah and purify yourselves by confidence in the corner-stone upon which the mountains around you rest.

"Did not Allah give you a token of his great power in the day when Abraha was driven back from your very gates without your aid?"

Such counsel had some effect, but it did not restrain the envious Koreishites from giving vent to their feelings as they encountered the prophet in the streets, and he was often saluted with bitter and insulting words, besides suffering personal injuries. These violences and petty exhibitions of spite, led to a reaction in the case of an adversary as determined as any that Mohammed ever had. On returning from the chase one day, Hamza, who was uncle to the prophet, heard of a new insult, and on