garb; and he found that no one would seriously accept him as a prophet, whilst he was paying homage to idols.

So he gave out that the words as far as 'Do you see the Lat and the Ozza and the Manah, as the third of them?' were a correct repetition of Gabriel's dictate; but that then the Devil, aware of his strong desire to conciliate the Meccans, had put on his tongue the false declaration: 'They are exalted Gharaniks, and, verily, their intercession can be expected.' These compromising words were therefore cancelled, and their place supplied by harmless ones, as they still stand in the 53d Sura. Mohammed is reported not to have become aware of the mischievous character and Satanic origin of the words he had uttered, till the angel Gabriel came and pointed it out to him. What a sorry picture is here presented of a prophet who pretends to speak the words of God, whilst he is uttering the inspirations of the Evil One, and needs an angel to point out to him so gross a mistake! Who can feel any confidence in the utterances of a man who is driven to make so humiliating a confession!

(6.) Mohammed's withdrawal from the compromise fans afresh the flame of ridicule and Persecution.

The effect of Mohammed's palpable error and his clumsy way of extricating himself from it, could not but be an increased contempt of his prophetic pretensions on the part of his astute fellow-townsmen. No wonder they now cruelly mocked him with proposals such as these: 'Thou knowest we have great lack of water in our narrow valley: pray, therefore, to thy Lord who has sent thee, that He may enlarge our land by moving the mountains further back; and that He may water it with rivers, like Syria and Irak. Or, if thou wilt not do this for us, provide at least for thyself. Ask God to send one of His angels to remove our objections by declaring thee true; or solicit Him to send thee gardens, palaces, and treasures of gold and silver, so that thou mayest no longer have to go to market to buy victuals, like any one of us. Then we shall know thy privilege and rank with God, and whether, as thou affirmest, thou really art a messenger of God. Surely thy Lord knows that we

are sitting with thee here and making certain requests to thee: why does He not come and tell thee how to refute us, or what He will do if we refuse to listen to thee? We have heard that a man in Yemama, called Rahman, is thy teacher; but, by Allah, we shall never believe in Rahman. We have now done what behoved us, and we shall no longer tolerate thee with thy machinations, till we have destroyed thee or thou hast destroyed us.' Thus Mohammed's prophetic claims were ridiculed, his pretended revelations openly attributed to some human source, and he was given to understand that still stronger repressive measures should now be adopted against him and his party.

We are informed that 'he went away dejected because his hope in the conversion of his fellow-tribesmen was disappointed, and he saw that they were further and further withdrawing from him.' The wonder is that, after this more than dubious instance of their prophet's reliableness, any of his adherents should remain; and if the faith of intelligent men like Abu Bekr did not become effectually disabused by such glaring inconsistencies, we may assume either that they had been consenting parties to the transaction, or that what they expected of Mohammed was not so much the revelation of God's pure truth, as rather the realisation of political and national aims, such as later on were actually achieved.

The sad compromise had lasted long enough to admit of the despatch of a messenger to Abyssinia to recall the refugees. But when they returned, the expected reconciliation and amity had come to nothing, and the old persecution was still raging as fiercely as ever. Hence only those of them ventured to remain who found influential men in Mecca under whose protection they could place themselves, whilst the rest went back to their Abyssinian asylum.

(7.) The two important Conversions of Hamza and Omar take place, notwithstanding the prevailing persecution.

A short time before the prophet's notorious lapse which has just occupied our attention, Hamza, one of his uncles, espoused his cause; and this instance of a conversion, if so it may be called, well illustrates how personal or tribal con-