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 Rhamadan, 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 early missionaries did the same thing in China and Japan, thinking more of the number of their converts than of the truth itself.  Expediency—­the utterly fallacious 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.  So the earlier missionaries, disregarding their vows, made the cause to which they were consecrated subservient to their personal gain.  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 he not a traitor to his God, his Church, and his fellowmen?  “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.”  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 light to mediaeval ritualists.  And it is thus that Satan has contrived to pervert the best institutions of the world.  The moment good men look to outward and superficial triumphs, to the disregard of inward purity, that moment do they accept the seductive lie of all ages,—­ “The end justifies the means.”