Beacon Lights of History, Volume 05 | Page 8

truth palatable; he would use the means which secure success. It
was success he wanted, and success he thus far had not secured. He was
ambitious; he would become a mighty spiritual potentate.
So he allowed polygamy,--the vice of Eastern nations from remote
periods; he promised a sensual Paradise to those who should die in
defence of his religion; he inflamed the imagination of the Arabians
with visions of sensual joys. He painted heaven as a land whose soil
was the finest wheaten flour, whose air was fragrant with perfumes,
whose streams were of crystal water or milk or wine or honey, flowing
over beds of musk and camphor,--a glorious garden of fruits and
flowers, whose inhabitants were clothed in garments of gold, sparkling
with rubies and diamonds, who reclined in sumptuous palaces and
silken pavilions, and on couches of voluptuous ease, and who were
served with viands which could be eaten without satiety, and liquors
which could be drunk without inebriation; yea, where the blissful
warrior for the faith should enjoy an unending youth, and where he
would be attended by houris, with black and loving eyes, free from all
defects, resplendent in beauty and grace, and rejoicing in perpetual

charms.
Such were the views, it is maintained, with which he inflamed the
faithful. And, more, he encouraged them to take up arms, and penetrate,
as warlike missionaries, to the utmost bounds of the habitable world, in
order to convert men to the faith of the one God, whose Prophet he
claimed to be. Moreover, he made new and extraordinary
"revelations,"--that he had ascended into the seventh heaven and held
converse with Gabriel; and he now added to his creed that old lie of
Eastern theogonies, that base element of all false religions,--that man
can propitiate the Deity by works of supererogation; that man can
purchase by ascetic labors and sacrifices his future salvation. This
falsity enters largely into Mohammedanism. I need not add how
discrepant it is with the cheerful teachings of the apostles, especially to
the poor, as seen in the deeds of penance, prayers in the corners of the
streets, the ablutions, the fasts, and the pilgrimages to which the faithful
are exhorted. And moreover he accommodated his fasts and feasts and
holidays and pilgrimages to the old customs of the people, thereby
teaching lessons of worldly wisdom. Astarte, the old object of Sabaean
idolatry, was particularly worshipped on a Friday; and this day was
made the Mohammedan Sabbath. Again, the month Rhamadán, from
time immemorial, had been set apart for fastings; this month the
Prophet adopted, declaring that in it he had received his first revelations.
Pilgrimages to the Black Stone were favorite forms of penance; and
this was perpetuated in the pilgrimages to Mecca.
Thus it would appear that Mohammed, after his flight, accommodated
his doctrines to the customs and tastes of his countrymen,--blending
with the sublime truths he declared subtile and pernicious errors. The
Jesuit missionaries did the same thing in China and Japan, thinking
more of the number of their converts than of the truth itself.
Expediency--the accepted Jesuitical principle of the end justifying the
means--is seen in almost everything in this world which blazes with
success. It is seen in politics, in philanthropy, in ecclesiasticism, and in
education. There are political Jesuits and philanthropical Jesuits and
Protestant Jesuits, as well as Catholic Jesuits and Mohammedan Jesuits.
What do you think of a man, wearing the livery of a gospel minister,

devoting all his energies to money-making, versed in the ways of the
"heathen Chinee,"--"ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain,"--all to
succeed better in worldly thrift, using all means for that single end,--is
not he practically a Jesuit? I do not mean a Catholic Jesuit, belonging to
the Society of Jesus, but popularly what we mean by a Jesuit. What
would you think of a college which lowered the standard of education
in order to draw students, or selected, as the guardians of its higher
interests, those men who would contribute the most money to its funds?
This spirit of expediency Mohammed entertained and utilized, in order
to gain success. Most of what is false in Mohammedanism is based on
expediency. The end was not lost sight of,--the conversion of his
countrymen to the belief in the unity and sovereignty of God, but it was
sought by means which would make them fanatics or pharisees. He was
not such a miserable creature as one who seeks to make money by
trading on the religious capital of the community; but he did adapt his
religion to the passions and habits of the people in order that they might
more readily be led to accept it. He listened to that same wicked Voice
which afterwards appeared in the guise of an angel of