did he do at the time of the yearly pilgrimage? What success attended his preaching? What did Mohammed do to strengthen his interest at Mecca? What falsehood did Mohammed palm upon his people about this time?

CONVERSATION VI.

The People of Medina offer to receive and defend Mohammed, The Koreish form a plot against his life,-He flies to Medina,-He is well received, and the government of the city given into his hands,-He changes his doctrine,-Comparison between the means employed for the establishment of Christianity and Islamism.

Caroline.

O, mother, I want to hear more about Mohammed. Will you tell us more about Mohammed?

Mother. Yes, my dear. He continued to be opposed, scorne 1, and derided, at Mecca. But his reputation was growing, and his doctrines secretly spreading at Medina. This city was about seventy miles from Mecca. It was inhabited by Pagan Arabs, Jews, and professors of Christianity, who had forsaken the truth and embraced error. It was distinguished as a place of learning. The Arabs, who inhabited this city, belonged to two tribes, the Kareites and Awsites. There was a quarrel of long standing between these tribes. The Jews and heretical

Christians were quarreling with each other, and among themselves. This state of things, seemed to favor the introduction of any new system that would promise deliverance from these unhappy broils.

Samuel.

Did Mohammed send missionaries to Medina? Or, how did his religion come to spread there?

Mother. You know, I told you some time ago, that, while Mohammed was preaching to the pilgrims at Mecca, six persons from Medina, embraced the new religion. They went home and preached with much success at Medina. In the course of this year, which was the twelfth year of the mission, twelve men went from Medina to Mecca, and took an oath of allegiance to Mohammed. By this oath, they swore they would remove idolatry; that they would not steal nor commit fornication; that they would not kill their children, as the Pagan Arabs used to do, when they were afraid they should not support them; that they would not invent falsehoods against others; and that they would obey the prophet in every thing that was reasonable. Caroline. Why, mother! could people be

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so cruel as to kill their children?

Mother. Yes, my dear; it is a common thing for heathen women to kill their children.

Be

fore the missionaries went to the South Sea Islands, there were scarcely any mothers, who were not guilty of this horrible crime; and now, in China, and many other parts of the world, multitudes of children are destroyed as soon as they are born.

Caroline. O how cruel! Is there no way, mother, to put a stop to this?

Mother. Yes, my dear; if we send them the Gospel, it will put a stop to it. It is not many years since the missionaries went to the Sand-. wich Islands; and now such a thing is not known there, as for a mother to kill her children; but there is scarcely a mother there, who lived before they heard the Gospel, that was not then guilty of this crime.

Caroline. O, mother, why don't they send missionaries to all the heathen?

Mother. There are two reasons, my dear, why all the heathen are not supplied with missionaries. The first is, that there are not ministers enough, who are willing to go to the heathen; and the second is, that Christians will not give money enough to support them.

Samuel. Why, mother, a great many Christians are engaged in business: some are farmers; others are mechanics, merchants, doctors, or lawyers. How can they be contented to live just to get rich, when so many are wanted to go as missionaries to the heathen?

Mother. Every man cannot be a minister of the Gospel. Some farmers, mechanics, merchants, doctors, and lawyers, are necessary; and some men are not fit for ministers. But now, while two thirds of the inhabitants of the world are heathen, there is more need of ministers of the Gospel than of any other class of men. Christ has commanded his people to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. It is then the duty of every Christian who is capable and has it in his power, to become a minister of the Gospel, until this command is fulfilled, and all the world supplied with ministers; and it is the duty of the rest of the church to support them. I believe every young man, who has sufficient natural ability, ought to devote his life to the service of Christ, and enter upon a course of preparation for the ministry.

Samuel.

Mother, Christ says that we must