THE

CHARACTER OF JESUS CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF MAHOMET.

CONSIDERED then in all its circumstances, the history of Christ shrinks not from comparison with the most partial and lofty representation of the prophet of Arabia.

Of both we find that the earlier part of life, before the publication of their respective missions, passed away in silence, private and undistinguished. The first years of Mahomet were busied in the cares of merchandise; till returning to his native city, he devoted to solitude and retirement the leisure which his opulence had procured. The youth of Jesus was spent in domestic privacy, and was remarkable only for affectionate and dutiful submission to his parents; unless, indeed, when in the temple, he by his ready answers to the questions of the Rabbins, and his skilful exposition of the Scriptures, astonished those that heard him, and gave an omen of his future greatness.

The designs of Mahomet were gradually and cautiously unfolded, and in order to prepare the minds of his countrymen for the reception of his faith, he first artfully persuaded his own relations and domestics, and drew to his side the most powerful of his neighbours.

Jesus walked forth by the sea of Galilee, and saw fishers casting their nets; these were his first converts and disciples. Though they were desti

tute of riches and power, he found in them what his ministry required, an honest and a willing spirit. He won them neither by subtle arguments nor crafty persuasions; but bade them forsake their nets and follow him, to see his humble dwelling, to hear his heavenly discourses to the people, and witness the wonders he was going to perform.

Jesus called his hearers to repentance, but Mahomet to conquest.

At their first appearance they were both compelled to avoid the rage of the multitude, who would have destroyed them: but Mahomet escaped by a secret, ignominious flight, and Jesus by a public miracle.

The revelation of the Arabian prophet was inconsistent; a system of contradiction, continually shifting with the views of his policy, and the necessities of his imposture; now looking towards Mecca, and now to Jerusalem. Widely different was the conduct of Christ. He did not seek to accommodate his doctrine to fortuitous changes in his external circumstances; he did not at one time revoke what he had asserted, or contradict what he had enjoined at another. Every part of his teaching was regular and consistent in the objects to which it was directed, and the language in which it was conveyed.

Mahomet allured his followers with the glories of a visible monarchy, and the splendour of temporal dominion. In him we behold the lord of war, and the destroyer of mankind, riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands who fell by his desolating sword; laying cities in flames;

carrying misery and bloodshed through the earth; and pursued in his victorious career by the lamentations and curses of its inhabitants. In Jesus we see the adorable Prince of peace, the friend and Saviour of the world, riding meekly to the holy city, hailed with the acclamations and blessings of much people, whom he had rescued from sin. and death, wiping the tears from all eyes, and healing every sickness and every disease.

And here the comparison must cease. The events that followed in our Saviour's life are too august to be placed in competition with any mortal power, and can be comprehended only by minds habituated to the contemplation of heavenly objects. Let us consider the passion of our Lord, and the magnificent scenes of his resurrection and ascension; and then ask in what part of all the history of Mahometanism any parallel or resemblance can be found? Let us, in imagination, hear and see the blessed Jesus, when he gives his apostles authority to go forth and baptize all nations, and preach in his name repentance and remission of sins; when he empowers them to cast out evil spirits, to speak with new tongues, and to work wonders; when he holds up to them the promise of the Comforter, and power from on high, and when, having blessed them, he ascends into heaven, where he is for ever seated in glory on the right hand of God.

But chiefly what raises Christ and his religion far above all the fictions of Mahomet, is that awful alternative of hopes and fears, that looking for of judgment, which our Christian faith sets before us.

At that day when time, the great arbiter of truth and falsehood, shall bring to pass the accomplishment of the ages, and the Son of God shall make his enemies his footstool, then shall the deluded followers of the great impostor, disappointed of the expected intercession of their prophet, stand trembling and dismayed at the approach of the glorified Messiah.

Then shall they say, yonder cometh in the clouds that Jesus, whose religion we laboured to destroy, whose temples we profaned, whose servants and followers we cruelly oppressed! Behold he cometh: but no longer the humble son of Mary, no longer a mere mortal prophet, the equal of Abraham and of Moses, as that deceiver taught us; but the everlasting Son of the everlasting Father! the Judge of mankind! the Sovereign of angels! the Lord of all things both in earth and heaven!

DR. J. WHITE,

CHARACTER OF THE KORAN.

It requires no uncommon effort of sagacity to discover the wide difference that subsists between the religions of Mahomet and Christ, in their influence on the conceptions of the imagination, and the direction of the appetites. The doctrines which the prophet of Arabia has taught concerning the divine perfections too frequently accord with the lowest ideas of the human mind; and though they are at times illuminated by sublime or magnificent images, yet many of the supposed beauties of the Koran consist rather in the

brilliancy of the language than in the majesty of the thought. How much Mahomet was indebted to the writings of the prophets and of the evangelists for the greater part of what is sublime or beautiful in his theology, his compositions declare; but with this sacred and hallowed imagery he blended the impure superstitions and gross conceptions of his countrymen. For the wild profusion and incongruous mixture of absurdity and sense which pervade his writings, it is scarcely possible to account on any other supposition than the natural incapacity even of the wisest man to form upon every subject, and to preserve, upon every occasion, just and consistent notions of the divine perfections.

In what glowing colours is the greatness of the Deity displayed almost in the commencement of the Koran; and with what zeal does the imagination go along with descriptions which seem so suited to the supreme dignity of his nature, and the glorious excellence of his works. Yet hardly is this enthusiasm excited before all the ardours of the mind are repressed, when we find this sublime Being descend to the meanest and most contemptible employments; prescribing laws which minister more to the appetites than to the interests of men; and regulating with the same care, at one moment, the order of secret and impure enjoyment, and, in the next, the discipline in which men are to be trained for eternity.

In the composition of the fanatical impostor, credulity is often intermixed with craft. The fervours, which are at first assumed voluntarily and insidiously, return by a kind of mechanical