Beacon Lights of History eBook

John Lord
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 326 pages of information about Beacon Lights of History.

Beacon Lights of History eBook

John Lord
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 326 pages of information about Beacon Lights of History.

It was during these thirteen years at Mecca, amid persecution and ridicule, and with few outward successes, that he probably wrote the Koran,—­a book without beginning and without end, disjecta membra, regardless of all rules of art, full of repetitions, and yet full of lofty precepts and noble truths of morality evidently borrowed from the Jewish Scriptures,—­in which his great ideas stand out with singular eloquence and impressiveness:  the unity of God, His divine sovereignty, the necessity of prayer, the soul’s immortality, future rewards and punishments.  His own private life had been blameless.  It was plain and simple.  For a whole month he did not light a fire to cook his food.  He swept his chamber himself and mended his own clothes.  His life was that of an ascetic enthusiast, profoundly impressed with the greatness and dignity of his mission.  Thus far his greatest error and fault was in the supposition that he was inspired in the same sense as the ancient Jewish prophets were inspired,—­to declare the will and the truth of God.  Any man leading such a life of contemplative asceticism and retirement is prone to fall into the belief of special divine illumination.  It characterized George Fox, the Anabaptists, Ignatius Loyola, Saint Theresa, and even, to some extent, Oliver Cromwell himself.  Mohammed’s supreme error was that he was the greatest as well as the last of the prophets.  This was fanaticism, but he was probably honest in the belief.  His brain was turned by dreams, ecstasies, and ascetic devotions.  But with all his visionary ideas of his call, his own morality and his teachings had been lofty, and apparently unsuccessful.  Possibly he was discouraged with the small progress he had made,—­disgusted, irritated, fierce.

Certainly, soon after he was established at Medina, a great change took place in his mode of propagating his doctrines.  His great ideas remained the same, but he adopted a new way to spread them.  So that I can almost fancy that some Mephistopheles, some form of Satanic agency, some lying Voice whispered to him in this wise:  “O Mohammed! of a truth thou art the Prophet of the living God.  Thou hast declared the grandest truths ever uttered in Arabia; but see how powerless they are on the minds and hearts of thy countrymen, with all thy eloquence, sincerity, and fervor.  By moral means thou hast effected comparatively nothing.  Thou hast preached thirteen years, and only made a few converts.  Thy truths are too elevated for a corrupt and wicked generation to accept.  Even thine own life is in danger.  Thou hast been obliged to fly to these barren rocks and sands.  Thou hast failed.  Why not pursue a new course, and adapt thy doctrines to men as they are?  Thy countrymen are wild, fierce, and warlike:  why not incite their martial passions in defence of thy doctrines?  They are an earnest people, and, believing in the truths which thou now declarest, they will fight for them and establish

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Beacon Lights of History from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.