chapters. Probably it is so arranged in order to represent twelve times the six "seasons "the Persian god was said to be occupied in creating the world. The Yasna consists chiefly of prayers to be recited at such sacrificial rites as the consecration of the holy water; the preparation of the sacred juice called Homa, closely resembling the Vedic Soma and serving a similar purpose; the offering of the holy cakes which were partaken of only by the priests, as in the Catholic communion service.

In the midst of these prayers are inserted the five Gathas or psalms of Zoroaster which take the place, in this form of religion, of the Sermon on the Mount. Most scholars now maintain that they are the only portions of the sacred Persian scriptures that emanated directly from Zoroaster himself. These songs or discourses resemble in metre the Vedic hymns. They begin with the heading: "The Revealed Thought, the Revealed Word, the Revealed Deed of Zarathustra the Holy; the archangels first sang the Gathas." Some extracts from the Gathas run as follows:

"I desire by my prayer with uplifted hands this joy,—the works of the Holy Spirit, Mazda, disposition to perform

and pure gifts for both worlds, the bodily

"I keep forever purity and good-mindedness. Teach thou me Ahura-Mazda, out of thyself; from heaven, by thy mouth, whereby the world first arose."

"I praise Ahura-Mazda, who has created the cattle, created the water and good trees, the splendor of light, the earth and all good. We praise the Fravashis of the pure men and women,-whatever is fairest, purest, immortal."

"We honor the good spirit, the good kingdom, the good law, all that is good."

"In the beginning, the two heavenly Ones spoke--the Good

·

to the Evil-thus: Our souls, doctrines, words, works, do not unite together.'

By the study of these psalms we find that Zoroaster taught that there are two principles in this world in constant conflict with each other, the principle of good and light and life, and the principle of sin, darkness, and death. Ormazd, or Ahura-Mazda as he is sometimes called, is the omniscient and omnipotent embodiment of the former, and Ahriman of the latter. They are primeval and co-eval, but not co-eternal powers. Nature is now rent asunder by the conflict of these two principles, but man as a free agent will eventually overthrow and annihilate all evil. The time will come when the good kingdom will be established. Ormazd and his good angels will triumph; Ahriman with his legion of devils will be destroyed.

Zoroaster exhorts every man to abjure polytheism and to have no other god than Ormazd, to eschew all forms of evil and cleave to the good, to think lightly of the allurements of the present world, and fix his thoughts upon the joys of the faithful in the life that is to come. We have here a very close approach to the Jehovah and Satan of the Old Testament and the kingdom of righteousness of the New.

A large portion of the other parts of the Yasna was probably composed by early disciples of Zoroaster and consists chiefly of prayers in prose addressed to AhuraMazda, the angels, the fire, the earth, the water, and other spiritual beings presiding over the different parts of the good creation. There is also a chapter containing a formula used in initiating converts into the new religion.

The second part of the Avesta is a collection of minor

litanies, invocations, etc., addressed to a variety of divinities and heads of the faith. The third part is made up of hymns of praise of certain individual angels or mythical heroes and is probably the work of many Median bards. Then follows a section of what may be called Minor Texts forming a sort of manual for morning devotion. The fifth part corresponds to our Pentateuch and is the code of religious, civil, and criminal laws of the ancient Iranians. It is evidently the work of many hands and many centuries. The pursuit of agriculture is especially enjoined and the care of useful animals. Much is made of the duty of keeping the water pure and of sanitation in general. For bodily purity is considered as of equal value with moral purity. The sixth and last part is a general appendix.

The power of Zoroastrianism as a national religion was hopelessly overthrown by the Mohammedan invasion of 641 A.D. Those who did not adopt the creed of their conquerors either fled to the mountains, where they remain to-day a feeble remnant of about seven or eight thousand, or migrated to India, where they now have a flourishing colony in the region of Bombay. There they are called Parsis and number about ninety thousand. They strenuously protest against being called fire-worshippers and are noted for their uprightness, morality, and benevolence. In business they have shown remarkable ability and a number of them are among the weathiest merchants of Bombay.

The religion of the Avesta has much in common with that of the Vedas, and both are probably derived from a common Aryan source. Many of the powers, such as Indra, Sura, Mithra, and the like, have the same name in both systems. Both regard fire as divine and pay reverence to the same intoxicating drink,

called Soma in Sanskrit, and Homa in the Avesta. But in the course of their development they came to be almost mutually exclusive. The gods of the Vedas appear in the Avesta as evil spirits. The Hindu utterly rejects the dualism of the Persian, and the disciple of Zoroaster is shocked at the slight regard for morality manifested in the system of the Hindu.

Both Judaism and Christianity have been immensely affected by Zoroastrian thought. Their doctrine of angels and devils, and the idea that good and evil are equal and permanent adversaries in this world so often maintained by their adherents, are probably derived from this source. Such poems as Milton's Paradise Lost, and Goethe's Faust," says James Freeman Clarke (Ten Great Religions, vol. i., p. 204) "could perhaps never have appeared in Christendom, had it not been for the influence of the system of Zoroaster on Jewish, and, through Jewish, on Christian thought.” But apart from this, the Persian religion has undoubtedly contributed more than any other so-called heathen religion to acquaint the world with the great thought that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of righteousness, and that it is the duty of every man to work for its establishment here and now.

g. Buddha's Tripitaka.-About five hundred years before the Christian era a powerful religious sect arose in India known as the Buddhists, and their bible came to be called the Tripitaka, which literally means the three baskets. It is made up of three collections. The first consists of aphorisms; the second of rites and ceremonies; and the third of philosophical speculations. Although Buddha, the founder of the sect, preached for more than forty years, he wrote nothing himself. His chief followers, however, immediately after his death

reduced his teachings to writing, and the first part of the Tripitaka consists, in the main, of his discourses handed down by word of mouth.

The Sanskrit word Buddha, or Booddha, means enlightened. It is applied to any man who, by numerous good works, continued through countless forms of existence, has become released from the bonds of existence and who, before he enters into Nirvana, proclaims to others the only true way for bringing about the redemption of man.

There have been innumerable Buddhas, but the Buddha of history, it is now admitted, was the son of a wealthy Indian chieftain, who had his capital at Kapilavastu near the foot of the Himalayas. His birth occurred about 550 B.C., and one of his early names was Gautama. By this he was generally known until he became the Enlightened One and set out on his new mission. Then he was called Gautama Buddha, just as Jesus came to be called Jesus Christ. Brought up in the seclusion and luxury of an Oriental court, he saw no signs of human misery till his twenty-ninth year. Then, as he went among the people, he was so impressed by the universal wretchedness that existed in the world, regardless of sex, caste, or condition, that he resolved to devote his life to finding some way of relief from it. He at once abandoned his luxurious home, his wife, and infant son, and, assuming the garb of a mendicant, betook himself to the life of a Brahmanical recluse. But, in spite of all his efforts to discover a way of salvation for himself and others in this manner, no light came to him.

Finally he plunged into the forest and for six years gave himself up to extreme austerities and self-mortification. Still he did not find the deliverance and peace