At the end of six years he had made only fifteen hundred converts.  But in three little skirmishes, magnified in subsequent times by the designation of the battles of Beder, of Ohud, and of the Nations, Mohammed discovered that his most convincing argument was his sword.  Afterward, with Oriental eloquence, he said, “Paradise will be found in the shadow of the crossing of swords.”  By a series of well-conducted military operations, his enemies were completely overthrown.  Arabian idolatry was absolutely exterminated; the doctrine he proclaimed, that “there is but one God,” was universally adopted by his countrymen, and his own apostleship accepted

Death of Mohammed. Let us pass over his stormy life, and hear what he says when, on the pinnacle of earthly power and glory, he was approaching its close.

Steadfast in his declaration of the unity of God, he departed from Medina on his last pilgrimage to Mecca, at the head of one hundred and fourteen thousand devotees, with camels decorated with garlands of flowers and fluttering streamers.  When he approached the holy city, he uttered the solemn invocation:  “Here am I in thy service, O God!  Thou hast no companion.  To thee alone belongeth worship.  Thine alone is the kingdom.  There is none to share it with thee.”

With his own hand he offered up the camels in sacrifice.  He considered that primeval institution to be equally sacred as prayer, and that no reason can be alleged in support of the one which is not equally strong in support of the other.

From the pulpit of the Caaba he reiterated, “O my hearers, I am only a man like yourselves.”  They remembered that he had once said to one who approached him with timid steps:  “Of what dost thou stand in awe?  I am no king.  I am nothing but the son of an Arab woman, who ate flesh dried in the sun.”

He returned to Medina to die.  In his farewell to his congregation, he said:  “Every thing happens according to the will of God, and has its appointed time, which can neither be hastened nor avoided.  I return to him who sent me, and my last command to you is, that ye love, honor, and uphold each other, that ye exhort each other to faith and constancy in belief, and to the performance of pious deeds.  My life has been for your good, and so will be my death.”

In his dying agony, his head was reclined on the lap of Ayesha.  From time to time he had dipped his hand in a vase of water, and moistened his face.  At last he ceased, and, gazing steadfastly upward, said, in broken accents:  “O God—­forgive my sins—­be it so.  I come.”

Shall we speak of this man with disrespect?  His precepts are, at this day, the religious guide of one- third of the human race.