350 MOHAMMED A PARODY OF CHRIST. [BK. II.

it 1 in the name of God and ate. Then the people all ate in turn, one company after another, 2 till all the men of the ditch went away satisfied."' 3

(48.) Towards the close of their earthly course, both the prophets triumphantly re-entered the capital city and national sanctuary, accompanied by a vast multitude of exultant followers, though previously they had to flee from it, their liberty and even their life being threatened by the parties in power; and they authoritatively rid the sanctuary of what was desecrating it.

a. 'Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.... Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews: but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples' (John xi. 47-54).
'Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. — And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage ... his disciples brought an ass and colt, and put on them their clothes, and set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the

1 Compare the 'giving thanks' of Jesus in John vi. 11.
2 Compare Mark vi. 40: 'And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.'
3 These instances of Mohammed's many miracles must suffice here, as they will form a subject by themselves, further on.
CH. I. 48.] HE MAKES A PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA. 351

prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them' (John xii. I; Matt. xxi. 1-14).

b. What, in the biographies of Mohammed, corresponds to this triumphant entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, separates into three distinct acts: aa. the three days' visit, after a wholly abortive attempt; bb. the conquest of Mecca and cleansing of the Kaaba; cc. the grand Farewell Pilgrimage. 1

aa. 'Six years after Mohammed and his followers had fled from Mecca, where their liberty and even their lives were endangered, and had been received with open arms in Medina, he resolved on a visit to the sacred city, in the character of a pilgrim. But fearing the Koreish might oppose him by force, he invited the friendly Arabs and Bedouins to accompany him. Many of these indeed slighted his invitation, but others joined the refugees and assistants. Then they put on the pilgrim's garment and carried with them animals for sacrifices, so that it might be quite obvious they were not coming for war, but merely on a religious visit to the temple. The Koreish, knowing with whom they had to do, put no confidence in Mohammed's professions, and

1 As it can be gathered from the narrative of the four Gospels that the whole journeys of Christ's public life tended towards Jerusalem, where He knew His 'Father's House' to be; where it was assigned Him to 'accomplish His ministry;' and where His Church was to be founded, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: so also it appears plain from the Mohammedan records that Mohammed, so long as he was forcibly debarred from Mecca, never ceased to keep its subjugation steadily in view, and persistently strove to obtain possession of the holy city and temple, as the centre and sanctuary of Islam. But how great a difference between the two prophets! Christ went to Jerusalem to be crucified, and to found a spiritual kingdom, 'not of this world;' but Mohammed entered Mecca as a conqueror, establishing a worldly empire under the guise of religion. It is, of course, not intended to affirm that Mohammed undertook these journeys to Mecca and the Kaaba for the express purpose of establishing a parallel to Christ's visit of Jerusalem and the Temple; but the description given by his biographers renders it not improbable that in their minds a desire existed to draw attention to Christ's royal entrance into Jerusalem, and to show how entirely it was eclipsed by Mohammed's pompous entrance into Mecca.