from Mecca and the Helpers from Medina to recognise each other's merits, and to exercise mutual forbearance and kindness. In the early part of his illness he freely conversed with visitors, and at the public prayers occupied his usual place in the mosque, to which he had a private entrance, by a door from Aisha's apartment; but for the last few days he was too weak to rise, and Abu Bekr, his father-in-law and old friend, officiated for him as Imam, by taking the lead in conducting public worship. On one occasion Abu Bekr was late and Omar took his place as Imam; but no sooner did Mohammed hear his voice, than he called through the window, opening into the mosque from Aisha's room, and ordered him to desist and to give way to Abu Bekr.

The Mohammedan biographers, in their account of their prophet's death-bed, as in fact of his life in general, make mention of many extraordinary circumstances, calculated to throw a supernatural halo around him, as, e.g. that, for the last three days, God daily sent, Gabriel to inquire after his health; that, on the third day, Gabriel was accompanied by the angel Ismael, who was at the head of 70,000 or 100,00 angels, each one of whom again headed a like number of other angels; that the angel of death obediently waited outside the room, till the sick man gave him permission to enter; that the keeper of hell was ordered to extinguish the infernal flames, whilst Mohammed was passing by, on his way to heaven; that the houris of Paradise were requested to adorn themselves, and the angelic hosts received command to form in lines, in honour of the Prophet's advent to the celestial realms, etc. But no sober-minded person can for a moment doubt that these stories are wholly without foundation in fact, and are nothing but the gratuitous invention of friends and partisans, according to whose heated imagination the close of their prophets life ought to have been thus marvellously distinguished.

In reality, Mohammed's death-agonies seem rather to have been unusually severe, than otherwise. We are informed that he alternately grew red and pale; that sometimes he pulled back his right, sometimes his left, hand; that large drops of perspiration, like pearls, fell from his cheeks; and that Aisha declared: 'Since I have seen his Excellency

yield up his soul with so much difficulty, I have no longer wished for an easy death: for if an easy death were best, God would certainly have chosen it for His Prophet.'

The circumstances of Mohammed's death were in keeping with his life: he was surrounded by a circle of nine surviving wives, to whom another was just about to be added (but who only received his matrimonial promise together with the tidings of his death); he expired in the apartment of his favourite Aisha, with his head reposing on her bosom, 'between her lungs and her neck'; and whilst he lay on his death-bed, his army was collecting at a small distance from Medina, for the purpose of carrying death and devastation into the Roman empire.

Who can help being struck with the contrast of all this to the close of the earthly life of Christ, who died upon the cross, and prayed for His tormentors: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Mohammed strove to supersede Christ: but how long the distance between them, how great the difference between their respective life and death! Christ was 'a prophet mighty in deed and in word before God and all the people' (Luke xxiv. 18), and sealed His testimony with His blood; Mohammed was a worldly ruler in a prophet's garb who, to extend his tyrannical power and compass his selfish ends, did not shrink from employing cunning, assassination, and war. Can any one, with the least spiritual perception, remain a moment doubtful as to which of the two deserves our confidence in the paramount concerns of the soul and of eternity?

(20.) Mohammed has scarcely closed his eyes, when Discord amongst his followers threatens to break up the whole fabric he had erected: but Abu Bekr manages to be chosen as the first Calif, and, as such, takes up the plans of his late friend.

The Arabian Prophet, not more than sixty-three years old, had hardly breathed his last, about noon on Monday, June 8th, A.D. 632, when the politico-religious structure he had reared, threatened to crumble to pieces; and those who had helped him in fabricating it, had to resort to the same sinister means which he had used himself, in order to keep it