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their religious system. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, in whom all the Jewish prophecies are accomplished; but the Jews, infatuated with the idea of a temporal Messiah, who is to subdue the world, still wait for his appearance.
The Talmud is a collection of the doctrines and morality of the Jews. Their confession of faith consists of thirteen articles, and distinctly affirms the authenticity and genuineness of the books of Moses.
From the time of the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by the Roman emperor Titus, A.D. 70, the Jews have been without a common country—without a temple—without a sacrifice—without a prophet—and, as was predicted respecting them, have ever been "an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word," among all the nations whither the Lord hath scattered them.
MAHOMETANISM.
Mahomet, the famous impostor and founder of this religion, was born in the year 570, at Mecca, a city of Arabia. Losing his father in his infancy, he was employed by his uncle to go with his caravans from Mecca to Damascus. In this occupation he continued till he was twenty-eight years of age, when, by marrying Khadijah, a rich widow, he became one of the wealthiest men in his native city.
A disposition to religious contemplation seems to have attended him from his early youth; and having remarked in his travels the great variety of sects which prevailed, he formed the design of forming a new one. He accordingly spent much of his time in a cave near Mecca, employed in meditation and prayer. With the assistance of two Christians and a Persian Jew, he framed the celebrated Koran or Alkoran, a book which he pretended to have received from heaven, by the hands of the angel Gabriel.
At the age of forty, he publicly assumed the prophetical character, calling himself the apostle of God. At first he had only nine followers, including his wife; but in three years the number was considerably increased.
A conspiracy having been formed against him in Mecca, he retreated to Medina. It is from this event, called the Hegira, or flight, that the Mussulmans compute their time; it corresponds with the 6th of June, 622.
From this period his affairs went on prosperously. Having declared his resolution to propagate the new faith by the sword, he added the hopes of booty to the religious zeal of his partisans; and having made himself master of Arabia, he
