The next day, satisfied that the heat of the pursuit had abated, they took the camels which had privately been brought to them from the city by the son of Abu Bakr, and set off for Medina, leaving Mecca on the right.  By the calculations of M. Caussin de Perceval, it was on the 20th of June, A.D. 622.

Sec. 4.  Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira.

From the Hegira the Mohammedan era begins; and from that point of the prophet’s history his fortunes rise, but his character degenerates.  He has borne adversity and opposition with a faith and a patience almost sublime; but prosperity he will not bear so well.  Down to that time he had been a prophet, teaching God’s truth to those who would receive it, and by the manifestation of that truth commending himself to every man’s conscience.  Now he was to become a politician, the head of a party, contriving expedients for its success.  Before, his only weapon was truth; now, his chief means was force.  Instead of convincing his opponents, he now compelled them to submit by the terror of his power.  His revelations changed their tone; they adapted themselves to his needs, and on all occasions, even when he wanted to take an extra wife, inspiration came to his aid.

What sadder tragedy is there than to see a great soul thus conquered by success?  “All these things,” says Satan, “I will give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”  When Jesus related his temptation to his disciples he put it in the form of a parable.  How could they, how can we, understand the temptations of a nature like that of Christ!  Perhaps he saw that he could have a great apparent success by the use of worldly means.  He could bring the Jew and the Gentile to acknowledge and receive his truth.  Some slight concession to worldly wisdom, some little compromise with existing errors, some hardly perceptible variation from perfect truthfulness, and lo! the kingdom of God would come in that very hour, instead of lingering through long centuries.  What evils might not be spared to the race, what woes to the world, if the divine gospel of love to God and man were inaugurated by Christ himself!  This, perhaps, was one of the temptations.  But Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”  He would use only good means for good ends.  He would take God’s way to do God’s work.  He would die on the cross, but not vary from the perfect truth.  The same temptation came to Mohammed, and he yielded.  Up to the Hegira, Mohammed might also have said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  But now the sword and falsehood were to serve him, as his most faithful servants, in building up Islam.  His ends were the same as before.  His object was still to establish the service of the one living and true God.  But his means, henceforth, are of the earth, earthy.