brought him a vision of God that overwhelmed him and purified as by
fire. He knew the Creator only from what he heard from the lips of
sinful, ignorant men, whose ideas of Deity were base and ignoble.
These ideas, and the passions that made up such a large portion of his
life, obscured his vision, warped his judgment, and led him to
postulate a God that inhabited not a Holy Spiritual Realm, but a
grossly carnal and sensuous paradise.

Millions have been brought beneath his sway because his system panders
to the natural inclinations of man. Spiritual insight is blinded by
carnal desire; conduct is influenced by unbridled license; bigotry and
hatred are fostered by his policy of intoleration; and his followers
are enslaved by a tyranny that blights the reason, because it
discountenances inquiry, and places an insurmountable barrier in the
way of all human progress.

In studying the life of Mohammed, the cause of his failure to uplift
humanity will be clearly seen. His early sincerity, if sincerity it
can be named, was absorbed by his consuming ambition. Had it been
otherwise he might have had his name inscribed with the honourable
ones of the earth--those men whose claims are ratified by their happy
effects. As it is, his name is linked with those whose deeds cause a
shudder of horror and repulsion to all who love honesty, purity, and
truth.




I.--EARLY LIFE.