energies of the people. The status of the great majority of women was little above that of common prostitutes. Polygamy, as everywhere in the Orient, was the prevailing custom and many Arabs had no less than eight or ten wives, which they could at any time throw out into the street without food or protection, entirely at their option. The habit among the Bedouins of selling their new-born daughters was a general one, and went on generation after generation unrebuked.

A few devout souls here and there, however, were not satisfied with this state of affairs, and Mohammed was one of them. He saw the need of a new religious awakening, and by uniting the three principal religions of his time and country he thought he could produce it. This idea is now considered the key to the Koran. Everywhere in it the Pentateuch and the Psalms are recognized as sacred revelations and so are also the Gospels. Moses and Christ are frequently declared to be genuine prophets. Resignation to the will of Allah, the all-wise and almighty, the chief god of his own tribe and people, is the one supreme duty of man.

Judaism, Christianity, and heathenism all contained for Mohammed important God-given truths. In the Koran he is constantly striving to win over the adherents of each, or else is rebuking them for the non-recognition of his mission. That Mohammed thoroughly believed in himself, at least in the first years of his mission, is no longer questioned. At the outset he was probably only one among a number of ascetics seeking their own salvation rather than that of others. But being possessed of a natural temperament that strongly addicted him to religious excitement, when what he regarded as direct revelation from

God came to him in his ecstatic visions, he was obliged to burst forth upon the community as a prophet.

Although his wife at once accepted his alleged revelations, when he announced to her that the angel Gabriel had appeared to him in the mountain and commanded him to proclaim the name of Allah, most of his relatives scornfully rejected them. For four years he preached in secret to slaves and people of the lowest rank, gaining only a mere handful of followers. Then the call came to go forward and publicly to assail the superstitions of the Meccans. This he did without fear or favor, exhorting them to turn from their idols and their sensuality and worship the only real and true God. The result was that he was obliged to flee from Mecca to Medina to escape assassination. This occurred in 622, and is known as the Hegira, from which all Moslems now reckon time.

The suras of this first period breathe a genuine religious spirit. The great fundamental ideas of the unity of God and the duty of prayer and almsgiving were constantly insisted upon as the vital things for this life and the life to come. But when once established in Medina, the consciousness of power and the rapid advance of the new form of religion under his leadership made him willing to maintain himself by strategy and force and at any cost.

It must be admitted that he was at times deceitful, cunning, and revengeful. In one respect, at least, he used his authority as a prophet to make provision for the flesh, excepting himself from the restrictions regarding women that were imposed upon others, as the Koran explicitly states. In common with his age he believed in signs and omens, and had many other superstitious beliefs. Yet in general we may say that,

judged by the standards of his time, the cause of religion has had few more earnest or sincere devotees. The Koran will always stand as a fitting monument to one of the world's master spirits.

k. Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon.-In the year 1830 there was published at Palmyra, a little village in what was then called the Wilderness of Western New York, the first edition of a bible which has since reached a circulation, it is asserted, of several millions, and has been printed in nearly all the leading languages of our time. For many years missionaries have been sent to all parts of the civilized world to spread abroad a knowledge of its contents, and they never were so active or so numerous as at present.

The book is about the size of the New Testament, and purports to be "The Sacred History of Ancient America from the Earliest Ages After the Flood to the Beginning of the Fifth Century of the Christian Era." The title of the volume is "The Book of Mormon; an account written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates taken from the Plates of Nephi." The title-page of the first edition also bore the inscription, "Joseph Smith, Jun., Author and Proprietor," but in all subsequent editions this has been changed to, "Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun."

Immediately after the title-page comes the following affidavit, signed by Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris: "Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom this work shall come, that we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record. of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who

came from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it is marvellous in our eyes, nevertheless the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful to Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen."

Attached to this affidavit is another, introduced by the use of the same phraseology, signed by four members of the Whitmer family, the father and two brothers of Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of the work, and Hiram Page, son-in-law of Peter Whitmer, Sen., in which they bear witness that "we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken."

Joseph Smith, Jun., himself thus summarized the contents of the book: "The history of America is un

folded from its first settlement by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian Era. We are informed by these records that America, in ancient times, has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle toward the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians.

"This book also tells us that our Saviour made his appearance upon this continent after his resurrection; that he planted the gospel here in all its fulness and richness and power and blessing; that they had apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists; the same order, the same priesthood, the same ordinances, gifts, powers, and blessing, as were enjoyed on the Eastern Continent; that the people were cut off in consequence of their transgressions; that the last of their prophets who existed among them was commanded to write an abridgment of their prophecies, history, etc., and to hide it up in the earth."

This so-called Bible of the Western Continent consists of fifteen books, and claims to have been written by authors who were divinely appointed to rule over the people of their day, and to make a record of their doings upon metallic plates prepared for the purpose. The books vary greatly in size. The book of Alma in recent editions of the work is divided into sixty-three chapters, and covers nearly a hundred pages; while the book of Enos has only one chapter, and covers a little over two pages.