od, Christianity is the religion by
which man, in the full enjoyment of individual development, and with the
sense of his own strength, lives in the consciousness of the most entire
dependence upon God. Religion in its highest form, conceived as the
oneness of man with God, is realized in Christianity.[53]

4. ISLAMISM.

The religion of the ancient nomadic tribes of the Arabian peninsula
originally exhibited a polytheistical character, in the form of the
worship, in part of sacred stones, in part of the powers of nature,
especially of the stars, whose position and motion were thought to exert
an influence, beneficent or baneful, upon the destinies of men. With
these conceptions was combined a certain leaning toward monotheism,
which manifested itself especially in the common worship of Allah taala
(equivalent to El Eljon), which was afterwards quickened and
strengthened by association with the Jewish tribes, with whom they held
themselves to be related by descent from Abraham. The Parsee doctrine of
demons, also, was not unknown in Arabia, after the conquest of the
Persians in the fifth century. After the third, fourth, and fifth
centuries, Christianity also, though in a corrupt form, or, definitely,
in the form of Monophysitism and Nestorianism, which had been condemned
by the church, became established in Arabia.

Amid such diverse elements, there was need of unity in the domain of
religion, a need for which Mohammed, after the example of others of his
family, sought to provide.

He was born at Mecca (571) of an honorable family, belonging to the
Koreish tribe. Finding no satisfaction for his restless spirit in the
trade to which after his parents' death he had at first devoted himself,
he gave himself up, in solitary retirement, to quiet meditation, and
became more and more convinced of his calling to put an end, by means of
a better religion, to the confusion existing among his countrymen with
regard to religion. The religious idea which overmastered him presented
itself to his powerful Oriental imagination in the form of a vision as a
revelation of Allah taala, made to him in the fortieth year of his life
by mediation of the angel Gabriel. His conviction, thus acquired, was
confirmed by revelations afterwards received; and, shared at first with
a small circle of trusted friends, gradually spread wider, until at last
Mohammed came forward in the ancient sanctuary, the Kaaba, at Mecca, as
prophet of Allah. For