And if the candlestick maker, who sells more candles than candlesticks, is present, why should the missionary, who is sent to bring the Light of Life to men, be absent?

As often as possible therefore we visit this market-place, and sell books and Bibles or preach to those who will listen. It is not at all an easy place to sell or to preach, but those who come there witness fine, splendid opportunities to meet men face to face, to get acquainted and to renew old acquaintance with villagers who come from distant parts of the Bahrein Island group. Here it is that many a gospel portion has exchanged hands and many a story of the power of Christ has been sowed as good seed in the hearts of the Arabs in the hope that God would use it to make them think of Jesus Christ as their Saviour. If books are sold they are often carried from here to distant villages, and it is possible to make acquaintance here with Arabs who come from the mainland and are visiting the islands, while one is sure to meet old friends who have not been able to come to see you for a long time.

One merchant used to keep a dry-goods stand and was one of the few Moslems in the early days of our work who was always glad to welcome a missionary. When the sun was very hot the shelter of his mat-screen was a nice shady nook to sit down in and talk with wayfarers. Right near the tall minarets we sometimes discuss the Koran and its teachings, and tell the Arabs how the book of Mohammed is really a finger-post pointing them to the Gospel and to Jesus Christ, the Great Prophet Who is alive forevermore. Will you not pray that every Thursday God will bless this little acre, the market-place of Suk el Khamis, where we sow the seed of God’s Own Word, waiting for the harvest?

V
WHERE THE QUEEN OF SHEBA LIVED

You have all read the story given in 1 Kings x. of the Queen of Sheba and her visit to Solomon of whose fame she had heard in her distant kingdom in Southwest Arabia, but the story as told in Mohammed’s Bible, the Koran, is very different, and has many curious fables mixed up with it. It is found in the chapter called “The Ant,” and this is how he tells it.

“We heretofore bestowed knowledge on David and Solomon: and they said, Praise be unto God, who hath made us more excellent than many of His faithful servants! And Solomon was David’s heir; and he said, O men, we have been taught the speech of birds, and have had all things bestowed on us; this is manifest excellence. And his armies were gathered together unto Solomon, consisting of genii, and men and birds; and they were led in distinct bands, until they came unto the valley of ants. And an ant, seeing the hosts approaching, said, O ants, enter ye into your habitations, lest Solomon and his army tread you under feet, and perceive it not. And Solomon smiled, laughing at her words, and said, O Lord, excite me that I may be thankful for Thy favour wherewith Thou hast favoured me and my parents; and that I may do that which is right and well-pleasing unto Thee; and introduce me, through Thy mercy, into Paradise, among Thy servants the righteous. And he viewed the birds, and said, What is the reason that I see not the lapwing? Is she absent? Verily I will chastise her with a severe chastisement, or I will put her to death, unless she bring me a just excuse. And she tarried not long before she presented herself unto Solomon, and said, I have viewed a country which thou hast not viewed; and I come unto thee from Saba, with a certain piece of news. I found a woman to reign over them, who is provided with everything requisite for a prince, and hath a magnificent throne. I found her and her people to worship the sun, besides God.”

The Koran then goes on to tell how Solomon sent her a letter, and she sent ambassadors to him, and finally asked one of his terrible jinn to bring her to him, throne and all, from Southwest Arabia. He did it in the twinkling of an eye, and after she saw Solomon and his glory she was converted to his religion!

Although this latter story of the Queen of Sheba is evidently fabulous, there is no doubt that the Bible story is true, because recent explorers have visited the country of the Queen of Sheba and her old capital Marib, a short distance east of Sanaa, and have brought back inscriptions which tell of the ancient glory of her kingdom. In the Old Testament the Sabaeans lived in Sheba, and their caravans brought gold and precious stones and spices into distant lands. (See Job vi. 19; Ezek. xxvii. 22, and Psalm lxxii. 10.)

On my first and second visit to Sanaa, the high mountain capital of all Yemen, I was privileged to look over into the borders of the country where the Queen of Sheba lived, and on the journey described in Chapter III I probably travelled from the coast by the same road which was used in the days of Solomon. It is not easy to build roads in so mountainous a country. Everywhere one can see the ruins of the old Himyarite civilization which flourished here from the time of Solomon until the Christian era. Some of the roads undoubtedly have been kept in repair ever since they were built along the mountainside by these early engineers. Stone bridges across torrent beds, tanks for holding water, and old castles with inscriptions in the strange language, still witness to the strength and vigour of this old empire. The accompanying picture is not that of the Queen of Sheba herself, but is undoubtedly that of a princess in the Sheba country. It was found among many, many other inscriptions and carvings in the land south of Marib, the old capital, where the famous dyke was built which was destroyed by a flood. When you study the picture, you will notice that the woman’s dress, with its ornaments and without a veil, the use of a throne, the carved pillars, and the page boys (or are they girls?) in waiting, are all so very different from the Arabia of to-day. The picture is also interesting when we remember how the early travellers and scientists who copied or brought back these famous inscriptions have confirmed the history of the Old Testament and its many references to South Arabia. One of them says: “The Queen of Sheba proved Solomon with hard questions, all of which in his wisdom he answered her. Now we who study the Old Testament, reversing the process, go to the wonderland of that queen with a multitude of inquiries, to many of which it has already given us a satisfactory reply.”

The capital of the Queen of Sheba, Marib, is largely in ruins, but something of the glory of the old civilization still lingers at Sanaa, which is at once one of the most beautiful and one of the most ancient cities of Arabia, built before the time of Solomon. It lies in a wide valley 7,250 feet above sea level. Jebel Nakum, with its marble quarries, rises abruptly like a fortress, just east of the city. The town is surrounded by a high wall, and has four gates. The houses are many of them four and five stories high, built of stone, and as they have no window-glass, they use slabs of alabaster instead. The population of the city is about fifty thousand, of whom more than twenty thousand are Jews.

My first visit to the city was in 1891, and the second in 1894. The first time I came straight up from Hodeida through Menakha, and in four days reached the city. The second journey was from Aden northward, leaving on July 2d, but what with delays and accidents and imprisonment by the Turks at Taiz, I did not reach Yemen’s capital until the 2d of August. The most surprising thing about Sanaa is not its old ruins, nor the wonderful fertility of the country round about, but the interesting character of its population. Here was a large city full of Jews who came to this part of the world, as they themselves testified, long before the destruction of Jerusalem; Greek merchants were carrying on a brisk trade in all the manufactured articles of Europe with the Arabs of the interior; Turkish army officials in splendid uniform trying in vain, as they are to-day, with their regiments of Turkish troops to put down Arab rebellions; and then the Arabs themselves, men, women and children, strong mountaineers, with love for liberty and heartily despising the government of which they are unwilling subjects.

Looking northward from this city you can see the highlands of Asir and the distant road that leads through Nejran. All this country was once Christian, and in Sanaa itself stood the great cathedral built by the Abyssinian king, Abraha, about the time when Mohammed was born. From Sanaa he led his army to Mecca, hoping to take the city and convert it to the Christian faith, but he was not successful. In the Koran chapter of “The Elephant,” you may read how the Christians were defeated when smallpox broke out among them. Standing on the slopes of Jebel Nakum and looking eastward, the country of the Queen of Sheba is spread out before you. You can imagine I was very sorry that, having been robbed of all my money on the way, it was impossible to carry out my plan of going from Sanaa to Marib, and from there right across Arabia to Bahrein. Perhaps some of you who read these lines will be privileged to make this journey. If you are, you will pass through some of the most interesting ruins in the world, and the hardships of a camel journey will be abundantly compensated by what you see on the road.

VI
THE JEWS OF KHEIBAR

Nearly all of the people who live in the country of the camel are Mohammedans, but it was not always so. Before the days of Mohammed, the prophet, there were very many Christians in Arabia and also many Jews. The former lived mostly in the southern part of the great peninsula, but the Jews had large settlements not only in the country of the Queen of Sheba—of which we have heard—but also at Mecca and Medina, which are now the two sacred cities, and especially in the country north of Medina, Kheibar. Some of these children of Israel came to Arabia at the time of the captivity when they were driven from their own country by persecution, and settled down in the rich and fertile valleys of Nejran and on the hills of Yemen. Others came to Arabia about the time when Jesus Christ was born.

There are Jews in Arabia still but not nearly as many as in the olden time. Their condition, too, is very sad and they are often sorely oppressed by the Moslems. There is no missionary working among them at present, although they have been visited by colporteurs who brought them the New Testament in the Hebrew language so that they might read for themselves the story of the Saviour Jesus Christ. I once had the pleasure of talking to a large company of Jews in the capital city of Yemen, Sanaa, and it was very touching to realize that these Jews were not of the number whose ancestors rejected Jesus and led Him out to be crucified, because as they themselves told me their forefathers had left the Holy Land many, many years before Jesus was born at Bethlehem.

But I want to tell you about the Jews of Kheibar. Northeast of the city where Mohammed lies buried, Medina, there is a barren stretch of rocky country and in the midst of it a valley where there are some springs of water and where with great toil it is possible to produce some vegetation. Here it was that thousands of Jews settled in the days before Mohammed, tilled the soil and lived happily until the Arabian prophet with his fierce warriors came preaching a new religion and filling the valley with the dead bodies of those who would not accept it.

You may read the story of this expedition of Mohammed in the history of his life. So bloody was the battle fought between the Jews and the Moslems that the Bedouins of that region when they see the iron rust on the banks of the brooks still say: “Look how the earth is purging itself of the much blood of the Jews that was spilled in the conquest of Kheibar.” According to the stories told by the Arab writers it was a desperate struggle. The Jews did not give Mohammed, the prophet, any easy victory. To defend themselves against Bedouin robbers and against assault they had built in the midst of their valley several castles or forts, one of which was so wonderful that it has very often been celebrated among the Arabs. It was called the Castle of Kheibar or Kamoos. An old Jewish warrior told the people that if they would build a fort in exact obedience to his written command it would be so strong that no enemy could overcome them or enter the fort. And these were his instructions: “Build the castle with eight gates and only one entrance; the walls eightfold and square; the entrance from the fifth; the second, the fourth; the third, the first; the fourth, the second; the fifth, the third; the sixth and seventh and eighth unchanged.” I will not leave you to puzzle over these strange instructions. An Arab friend of mine who told me the story drew the castle for me and here you have it. If you will try to find your way to the keep of the castle where the Jews defended themselves, you will agree that it is not surprising that it took Mohammed twenty days to storm it. When the castle was taken, the booty divided and the captives slain in a most cruel manner, Mohammed took Safia, the widow of the chief of Kheibar to his tent as his captive. Zainab, the sister of the warrior who fought against Mohammed and who herself had lost her brother, her husband and her father in the battle, tried the next day to kill the prophet of Arabia by sending him some mutton into which she had put poison, but her attempt at vengeance was not successful. The Moslems say it was a miracle that their prophet escaped.

The conquest of the Jews was complete, for all the Jews that escaped from the siege of Kheibar were obliged to turn Moslems and there never was freedom for the Jew again in all Arabia. They are generally heavily taxed, have no redress against abuse and repression and are looked down upon by all the Moslem population. In the capital city of Sanaa they are not even allowed to carry arms or to ride in the streets. They must live in a separate part of the town and draw water from wells of their own.

At Aden and in other parts of British Arabia the Jews are prosperous, but everywhere else their lot is not a happy one. The total number of Jews in Arabia is perhaps two hundred thousand. One half of them at present live in Yemen and the rest mostly in Bagdad and Busrah.

The traveller who goes on shore at Aden on his way to India never fails to meet the Jews. In fact, they besiege every passing steamer and are anxious to sell their wares, ostrich eggs, ostrich feathers, coins, and curios. You can at once tell them from their peculiar habit of wearing two locks of hair in front of their ears. Many of the Jews in Arabia are utterly given over to money getting and worldly pleasures, but others are strong in their religion and look forward still for the hope of Israel. They are always glad to purchase the Hebrew Bible and to send their children to school.

Pray for this despised and rejected people there in Arabia and everywhere that more may be done for their salvation and that missionaries may be sent to work especially for these “lost sheep of the house of Israel” who have so long been living in the tents of Ishmael! Perhaps God wants one of you to come out and tell them the story of Jesus Christ Who must love them more than we do as He is one of themselves.

VII
AMULETS AND OTHER EVERY-DAY THINGS

Did you ever see a woman or a girl dressed in such a strange way as the one in the picture? Of course you know that Moslem women wear veils, but this veil is like a window-casing with the panes of glass knocked out. It is made of stiff cloth, heavily embroidered, sometimes with gilt or silver embroidery, and has a nose piece and strings to fasten around the head. In addition to this curious veil you notice that she has three bracelets on each arm, and you can get a glimpse of her nose jewel hanging underneath the veil. Of course she wears earrings and anklets. The most conspicuous part of her jewelry, however, is the amulet case which hangs by a silver chain from around her neck, and has beautiful bangles attached to it below. Nearly every one in Topsy Turvy Land wears amulets. They are worn not for ornament, but for protection, and no one would think of leaving them at home if he went on a journey.

Amulets and charms are worn not only by the Arabs themselves and to protect their children from the evil eye, but they are put over the doors of their houses, and hung on camels, donkeys, horses, fishing boats, in fact, anywhere and everywhere to ward off danger and death. Only yesterday a little boy came to our church service, whose mother is still a Moslem, and he had hanging from his neck a whole collection of curious things, beads, bones, sacred relics, etc., all to protect him from the evil eye.

All sorts of things are used as amulets in Arabia, and their use is justified by the saying of Mohammed himself: “There is no wrong in using charms and spells so long as you do not associate anything with God.” The most common things used as amulets are a small Koran suspended in a silver case; words from the Koran written on paper and carried in a leather receptacle; the names of Allah or their numerical value; the names of Mohammed and his companions; precious stones with or without inscriptions; beads; old coins; clay images; the teeth of wild animals; holy earth from Mecca or Kerbela in the shape of tiny bricks, or in small bags. When the Kaaba covering at Mecca is taken down each year and renewed, the old cloth is cut up into small pieces and sold for charms.

The women in Mecca use an amulet of special power called “Mishkash,” which is supposed to exercise its virtue for the increase of the family. The “Mishkash” is really a copy of an old Venetian coin, representing the Duke of Venice kneeling before St. Mark on the one side, and on the other side is the image of Christ surrounded by stars. Of course the women themselves are in total ignorance of the inscription on the coin and of its Christian character.

According to the principles of Islam only verses from the Koran should be used, but the door of superstition once being set ajar by Mohammed himself, as we know from the story of his life, it is now wide open. The chapters from the Koran which are most often selected for use as amulets and put in the little cases shown in the picture are Surahs I, VI, XVIII, XXXVI, XLIV, LV, LXVII, LXXVIII. There are five verses in the Koran called the verses of protection, “Ayat-el-Hifdh,” which are the most powerful to defend from evil. They read as follows: “The preservation of heaven and earth is no burden unto Him;” “God is the best protector;” “They guard him by the command of God;” “We guard him from every stoned devil;” “A protection from every rebellious devil.” These verses are written with great care and with a special kind of ink by those who deal in amulets, and are then sold for a good price to Moslem women and children. The ink used for writing amulets is saffron water, the juice of onions, water from the sacred well of Zem Zem, and sometimes even human blood. It is very important that the one who writes the amulet be a holy man in the Moslem sense of that word. We are told in Arabic books on the subject (and these books are printed by the thousands) that “The diet of the one who prepares charms depends on the kind of names of God which he intends to write or recite. If they are the terrible attributes of Allah, then he must refrain from the use of meat, fish, eggs, honey and musk. If they are His amiable attributes, he must abstain from butter, curds, vinegar, salt and ambergris.”

A favourite kind of amulet is called the magic square, and I have drawn one here for you. Most of the Arabs believe that there are only four elements, earth, air, fire and water, and under these four names they have numerical squares, as you see them, of the numbers one to sixteen, and whichever way you add the columns up and down or across the total is always thirty-four. Try it.

EARTH

WATER

AIR

FIRE

Among the Shiah Moslems, whom we meet everywhere in East Arabia, the most common amulet is called Nadi-Ali. It consists generally of a lead or silver plate with little bells at the bottom, inscribed with these words:

There are innumerable cases where such amulets are used for the cure of disease. The native doctors firmly believe that when every remedy fails, the book of Allah, if properly administered, internally or externally, will drive away pain and cure the patient.

The hospitals and book-shops and schools will doubtless in time drive out the use of amulets in Arabia, and the march of civilization, with its modern scientific miracles and spirit of investigation, is also a means to that end. Nevertheless, I have known of cases where printed Arabic gospels were bought to be used as amulets and where patients tried to rub off ink from the printed paper used to wrap powders in at the hospital, in order to drink the solution as a remedy.

There are other things in Arabia which, though not amulets, will strike you as very strange. First there is the market basket, deftly woven out of palm leaves. When this is smeared with bitumen inside, it will hold water as well as an American pail or a bucket. The Arab broom is made of palm leaf fibre, with a short handle, and the dish cover below it is also made of palm fibre and rope, and is beautifully stained with colours, and when they bring in a dish of Hassa dates to entertain guests, such a cover is always put on to protect it from the flies.

The sewing basket and the fan and the woman’s sandals are also very interesting. The men’s sandals, as well as the women’s sandals, have a peg or leather thong, which goes between the big toe and the one next to it, and by which they cling to their footgear in a way that would surprise you. Because the women’s slippers are made of wood, you can hear their footsteps when they are a great way off, and the clap-clap of the women’s sandals is a familiar sound to all of us here in Arabia.

What do you think of their beautiful furniture? There are small tables used to hold water jars or trays of food, and folding bookstands cleverly made out of one piece of hard wood that fold up for a journey. Larger bookstands are made of date sticks and are strong enough to support a big volume of the Koran. The Arabs love to sit and swing back and forth as they chant its chapters. And lastly is something that looks very much like an amulet, but which is a traveller’s bag for bread and dates, often fastened to the camel saddle by leather thongs. Bread or dates kept in such a receptacle will keep moist for many, many hours in the hot, dry climate of Arabia.

The Arabs are not skilled as the Japanese and Chinese are with tools, nor are they much given to art of any kind, but you must admit that such every-day things are many of them artistic and some of them really beautiful.

VIII
THE MOST WONDERFUL STONE IN THE WORLD

The Ten Commandments were written on two tables of stone but these original stones are lost; the High Priest Aaron had twelve most precious stones in his breast plate when he went into the holy place to minister; Jacob placed a stone for a pillow when he fled from his brother, but no one has found this old memorial. Many other wonderful stones are held almost sacred because of past history. Stone worship is one of the oldest forms of idolatry. The old Druid stone in England, where the priests offered sacrifice during their worship and where even human blood was spilt in the name of religion, are examples.

Plymouth Rock is also a famous stone from its part in history. It marks the place where the Pilgrim fathers landed in 1620. There have also been precious stones which have had a remarkable history and for which much money and often life was sacrificed, and then none of the boys can forget the pebble which David found in the brook and which was the weapon of his victory over great Goliath.

But the most wonderful stone in the world to-day is none of these that I have told you of. It is the Black Stone of the old idol temple in Arabia, now the centre of Mohammedan worship.

The greater number of the tribes of Arabia in Mohammed’s day, if they had any religion at all, were little better than fetich worshippers, each tribe having its own idol or god, which in many cases was some peculiar tree or rock in their territory, around which they built rude shrines, and to which they made pilgrimages. From time immemorial, however, there was one fetich which the whole race seemed to regard as peculiarly sacred, and that was the Kaaba, or sacred stone of Mecca. It is probable that this stone was a shooting star, which, falling from heaven in the presence of spectators, became ever after an object of superstitious veneration, just as the stone of Diana of Ephesus became the centre of worship for the Greek world. The tribe to which Mohammed belonged had held for several generations the office of stewards to this great national shrine, to encourage the flocking of pilgrims to the Kaaba. From this source the wealthy families of Mecca got the great part of their money. They admitted impartially figures of all the idols of the tribes from one end of Arabia to the other, so that each man might feel at home when he arrived there for his devotions.

When Mohammed had fully established his new religion he turned out all the old deities except the Black Stone, which he himself worshipped, and concerning which worship he left minute directions for his followers. Such was the inconsistency of the prophet whose creed was “There is no god but Allah.” The object of the pilgrimage as instituted by Mohammed was to worship the Sacred Mosque and Kaaba. According to Moslem writers, the Kaaba was built by Adam, exactly under the spot occupied by God’s throne in heaven. It is an oblong building in the centre of the mosque, covered with a black cloth, and in it is the sacred Black Stone which came down from heaven snow-white, and was turned black by the sins of the people.

The Black Stone is located on the southeast corner of the Kaaba, about five feet from the ground. It is probably an aerolite, black and sprinkled with lighter patches and came down as a falling star. Many years after Mohammed’s death it was stolen by some of the Arabs on the Persian Gulf and carried across the desert to Katif; when it was carried back again it fell from the camel on its long journey and was broken. Now a silver band holds the pieces together and the whole stone is imbedded in the wall.

It is necessary for every Moslem to visit Mecca at least once during his lifetime. When all these pilgrims arrive within a short distance of the Holy City, they must put off their every-day clothing and put on the pilgrim garb, which consists of two pieces of white cloth,—one tied around the loins and the other drawn over the shoulders, under their arm, leaving one shoulder bare. The pilgrims are allowed to wear sandals, but not shoes. Thus clad every one goes in turn to the sacred well of Zem Zem, washes his whole body with a pailful of the water, and then drinks as much as he cares. Then he enters the “door of peace” and kisses the most wonderful stone in the world, running around the Kaaba seven times and each time when he passes the stone he strokes it with his hand or kisses it. After this all the Moslem pilgrims say the regular prayer and retire.

The next day, those who are seeking Paradise along the zigzag road of Mohammed’s religion must do other things as well. They must visit the place where Abraham is supposed to have stood, when he rebuilt the Kaaba. Then they must run between the mountains of Safa and Milra, two little hills near Mecca, and do other things every day until the sixth day, when all the pilgrims surround the Kaaba as they did on the first day. On the seventh day the sermon is preached from the great pulpit in the middle of the building. The preacher no doubt urges all those who are present to persevere in their religion and make converts among the nations. It is a large gathering indeed which comes to Mecca. Between seventy and eighty thousand people travel every year to visit the city from every part of the Moslem world,—Europe, Asia, Africa and the islands of the sea. After the sermon is over two more days are spent in various visits to sacred places around Mecca and then comes the greatest day of all, which is celebrated all over the Moslem world, namely, the day of Sacrifice.

Although Mohammedans deny the death of Christ and the need of an atonement for sin, it is strange that this great feast should still be a feast of sacrifice, like that of the Jews of old. Every earnest believer takes a goat, a sheep or a camel, places it so as to face the Kaaba and plunges a knife into its throat as he cries out—“God is great and Mohammed is His apostle.” When the sacrifice is over the pilgrim is allowed again to shave his beard and trim his nails and put on his ordinary clothing, all of which was forbidden during the ten days of pilgrimage. He is also given a certificate stating that he has finished the pilgrimage and is now ready for Paradise, or words to that effect.

The most of the pilgrims who come back from Mecca are not any better for going, because the city is the centre not only of diseases such as cholera and plague, which cause the death of many, but is also the centre of immorality and wickedness.

Although travellers have visited Mecca by pretending to be Mohammedans and at the risk of their lives, no Christian, were he known to be so, would be allowed to enter the sacred city. The first European to visit Mecca was an English sailor boy, called Joseph Pitts, who was captured as a slave in Algiers and taken to Mecca against his will. He was forced to become a Moslem, but afterwards escaped to England and wrote a book on what he had seen.

The new railroad which is now being built by the Turkish government from Damascus to Medina and on to Mecca will soon be completed, and who can say whether it will not open up the whole country to the Gospel? A big American locomotive will soon be puffing steam and sounding its whistle right near the Kaaba, over against the most wonderful stone in the world.

IX
THE CAMEL DRIVER WHO BECAME A PROPHET

If one could have all the boys of the world pass by in single file and take down their names one by one, there would be a great many who bore the same name. Johns and Henrys and Carls and Hans there would be by the thousands, but there would be no name which so many boys had in common, I am sure, as the name of Mohammed. It is a very safe estimate to say that there are living in the world to-day no less than five million boys and men who bear that name.

Yet I wonder how many of you know who Mohammed was, where he lived and died, and why he has such a world-wide reputation? He was a poor orphan; his father died before he was born and his mother only a few years after, but although he was so forlorn and lived in a very barren part of Arabia, in one of the valleys of the city of Mecca, he had powerful relatives who were kind to him and helped him. He was born in the year 570 A. D., about a thousand years before Columbus discovered America. His mother’s name was Amina, which means faithful.

There are many strange stories told about him when he was a boy. One story is that while he was away in the desert with his foster brother, living with the Arab tribes and growing strong by exercise and drinking camels’ milk, one day two men dressed in white came and threw him on the ground. They then took out his heart, by opening his breast, and squeezed out a drop of black blood, and put the heart back again, closing up the wound. The Arabs believe that in this way he got rid of his original sin and was made pure. As a boy he was pleasing and industrious, and won the name of “the faithful one.” However, at the time of Mohammed’s childhood, morals and manners in Mecca were as bad as possible, and he did not have many good influences to help him in the right way.

When he was about twelve years old, his uncle, Abu-Talib, took him along on a journey to Syria, as far as Bozra, a town that is mentioned in the Bible, and not the same as Busrah on the Persian Gulf. This journey lasted for some months, and it was at this time that Mohammed met a Christian monk, who, it is reported, told Abu-Talib to take good care of the youth, for great dignity awaited him.

On this journey Mohammed for the first time came in touch with Christianity, and was surely impressed by the national and social customs of Christians; and being a bright boy, he was easily able to see the difference between the habits and religion of his own nation and those of the Christians. It was after this journey that he was anxious to reform the dreadful idolatry and wicked ways of the Arabian people. From the age of twelve to twenty he lived in the usual manner of the boys of his day, tending sheep on the hillsides and valleys of Mecca, and he was so honest and pure and fair during these years, and such a contrast to those around him, that everybody gave him the name I told you of—Al Amin, i. e., “the faithful.” During this time, too, he learned something of what war was like, for he went with his uncles on two expeditions to fight against another tribe. When Mohammed was twenty-five years old, his uncle suggested that he should take charge of a caravan for a rich lady living in Mecca, and trading products of Mecca for other things from Syria and other parts of Arabia. On this journey Mohammed again came in contact with Christians and Jews, and he must have noticed, too, how, while professing to serve and love the one true God, they always seemed to be quarrelling about their religion. Perhaps he saw the truth in both systems and afterwards thought he could make out of them one simple creed and unite all mankind in the worship of the only true God.

After his return from this trip, he was married to Khadijah, by whom he had been employed as camel driver, making zigzag journeys across the country to sell and exchange his merchandise. After his marriage he lived happily, so we are told, until his fortieth year, when he began to have dreams, and became persuaded that God had called him to be a prophet. Many verses of the Koran were recited and written down. Mohammed wanted most of all at this time that his countrymen should put away their idols and worship only Allah, but some of them were very angry and would have killed him, if he had not hidden.

Mohammed and Khadijah had six children, but most of them died when they were young. His daughter Fatimah, when she was old enough, was married to her adopted brother, Ali; her name is very much honoured and used by Moslems everywhere.

Sometimes Mohammed would have his dreams very often, and then again he would go a long time without a revelation. But he began to believe in himself and told his visions to others, and they too began to believe in him as a prophet of God. His relatives were the first ones to come out and follow the new religion. He wanted to take the idols out of the Kaaba at Mecca, and preached against idolatry, and for this reason the keepers of the Kaaba were very angry and persecuted him for his preaching. When the persecution became too bad, he then recanted or withdrew some of his statements in regard to the idols and the true worship, and he told them he had had a vision or revelation that they might retain their most important gods, or rather, the favourite ones. But after a few days he repented of this leniency, and told the Meccans he had made a mistake and all the idols must be destroyed, and they must worship Allah only. The people began to treat him badly and they would have killed him if he had not fled to Medina. The persecutors followed him and nearly overtook him, when he came to a cave and slipped inside, and one tradition says that after the prophet (on him be prayers and peace) had gone inside, some pigeons came and sat on the edge of the cave; also a spider quickly wove a web across the mouth of the cave and when his pursuers came and looked they said: “He is not in there, for see the pigeons and the spider’s web; he cannot be inside,” and thus God preserved the life of Mohammed. Afterwards those men turned back, and he came out of the cave and went on to Medina. And there his religion prospered, and Mohammed saw a vision of the power he might hold, so little by little the stern purpose of his life—to cleanse his people from idol worship—became weaker. He gave in, here a little and there a little, and gave to his followers many harmful privileges, which he said were revelations from the Angel Gabriel to him. These same privileges have degraded the nations they have governed, and the religion of the sword and of plunder appealed to the human heart more than spiritual things possibly could. He soon gained many thousands of followers, and grew strong and bold, and began to organize bands to go out and kill and destroy all who would not follow the new religion.

And thus the camel driver became a great prophet. His name to-day is called out five times a day from the minarets (i. e., mosque steeples) in Central Asia, along the shores of the Mediterranean, in the heart of Africa, in India and the islands of the sea, as well as all over Arabia and Persia and the Turkish Empire. And if you wish to help bring back these nations to Jesus Christ and away from Mohammed, you must be up with the muezzin before the dawn, and pray and call others to prayer and work in earnest, so that the children of this generation may have a chance to learn about our Saviour and theirs, and of all the helpful things He has taught us.

X
THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANGELS

The Arabs are a proud and noble race. They are proud of their liberty and of their free open-air desert customs. They are proud of their religion and of their prophet. They are proud of their history and of their patriarchal descent. But most of all, they are proud of their language, one of the oldest and most wonderful forms of human speech. Mohammed himself in his Koran, which you know is the Moslem Bible, speaks of the Arab tongue as “the language of the angels.” He and the Arabs believed that Adam and Eve spake Arabic in Paradise, and that the language of revelation in which God spoke to His prophets, Abraham, Moses and Solomon, was none other than the language of the desert, the speech of the Arabs.

One of the most learned Arabs who lived about three hundred years after Mohammed said: “The wisdom of God hath come down upon three things:—the brain of the Franks, the hand of the Chinese and the tongue of the Arabs.” What this Arab philosopher meant was that while the people of Europe are distinguished for their power of invention and discovery, the Chinese are distinguished as artists and artisans, but the Arabs are all of them born orators and poets. The people of Europe, he meant to say, have brain power, the people of the Orient skill in handicraft, but the Arabs, eloquence. If you will read the Book of Job, which was doubtless written in Arabia and describes early Arabian life, or read the latter chapters of Mohammed’s Koran, or better still some of the Arabian poetry, you will appreciate the truth of this wonderful statement.

The first thing that is remarkable about the language of the Arabs is its wide-spread use. Like English it has spilled itself all over the map of the world, far beyond its original limits, and like English it was carried by commerce and by conquest, by merchants and by missionaries.