But the worst thing which the Prophet did in order to gain his end was to make use of the sword.  For thirteen years he appealed to conscience.  Now he makes it an inducement for men to fight for his great idea.  “Different prophets,” said he, in his memorable manifesto, “have been sent by God to illustrate His different attributes:  Moses, His providence; Solomon, His wisdom; Christ, His righteousness; but I, the last of the prophets, am sent with the sword.  Let those who promulgate my faith enter into no arguments or discussions, but slay all who refuse obedience.  Whoever fights for the true faith, whether he fall or conquer, will assuredly receive a glorious reward, for the sword is the key of heaven.  All who draw it in defence of the faith shall receive temporal and future blessings.  Every drop of their blood, every peril and hardship, will be registered on high as more meritorious than fasting or prayer.  If they fall in battle their sins will be washed away, and they shall be transported into Paradise, to revel in eternal pleasures, and in the arms of black-eyed houris.”  Thus did he stimulate the martial fanaticism of a warlike and heroic people with the promise of future happiness.  What a monstrous expediency,—­worse than all the combined usurpations of the popes!

And what was the result?  I need not point to the successive conquests of the Saracens with such a mighty stimulus.  They were loyal to the truth for which they fought.  They never afterwards became idolaters; but their religion was built up on the miseries of nations.  To propagate the faith of Mohammed they overran the world.  Never were conquests more rapid and more terrible.

At first Mohammed’s followers in Medina sallied out and attacked the caravans of Arabia, and especially all belonging to Mecca (the city which had rejected him), until all the various tribes acknowledged the religion of the Prophet, for they were easily converted to a faith which flattered their predatory inclinations and promised them future immunities.  The first cavalcade which entered Medina with spoils made Mussulmans of all the inhabitants, and gave Mohammed the control of the city.  The battle of Moat gave him a triumphal entrance into Mecca.  He soon found himself the sovereign of all Arabia; and when he died, at the age of 63, in the eleventh year after his Hegira, or flight from Mecca, he was the most successful founder of a religion the world has known, next to Buddha.  A religion appealing to truth alone had made only a few converts in thirteen years; a religion which appealed to the sword had made converts of a great nation in eleven years.