(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

ANCIENT CONCEPTIONS OF GOD.—(Continued.)

SPECIAL TEXT: "Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus: * * * * I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me; I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me." (Isaiah xlv:1, 2, 3.)

NOTES.

1. The Phoenicians: "Ancient Phoenicia embraced a little strip of broken seacoast lying between the Mediterranean Sea and the ranges of Mount Lebanon. * * * The Phoenicians were of Semitic race. Their ancestors lived in the neighborhood of the Persian Gulf. From their seats in that region they migrated westward, like the ancestors of the Hebrews, and reached the Mediterranean before the light of history had fallen upon its shores. The various Phoenician cities never coalesced to form a true nation. They constituted merely a sort of league or confederacy, the petty states of which generally acknowledged the leadership of Tyre or of Sidon, the two chief cities. The place of supremacy in the confederation was at first held by Sidon, but later by Tyre.

"The greatest of the Phoenician colonies was Carthage, on the northern coast of Africa, founded by Dido, a Tyrian princess, 878 B. C. For awhile, Carthage contested the mastery of the world with Rome." (Myers' General History, p. 54.)

2. The Gods of the Phoenicians: "The Phoenicians had somewhat the same religious notions as the Babylonians, and worshipped some of the same gods, Baal for instance" (Crabb Ch. lv.). "Baal was the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations. Ashtoreth was their female divinity. The name Baal means lord. He was the sun-god. The name is generally used in connection with other names as Baal-Gad, that is Baal the Fortune-bringer; Baal-Berith or Covenant-making Baal; Baal-Zebub, the Fly-god. The people of Israel worshipped Baal up to the time of Samuel, at whose rebuke they forsook this iniquity for nearly a hundred years. The practice was introduced again in the time of Solomon, and continued to the days of the captivity." (Dobbin's World's Worship, p. 142).

It was with the priests of Baal, on Mount Carmal, that Elijah had his great contest, in which Jehovah was vindicated as God. (See I Kings, xviii.)

3. The Worship of Moloch: Saturn was most honored by the Carthaginians a colony of the Phoenicians, be it remembered; and Saturn was the Moloch of the Jewish scripture.

"This idol was the deity to whom they offered up human sacrifices, and to this we owe the fable of Saturn's having devoured his own children. Princes and great men, under particular calamities, used to offer up their most beloved children to this idol. Private persons imitated the conduct of their princes, and thus, in time, the practice became general; nay, to such a height did they carry their infatuation, that those who had no children of their own purchased those of the poor, that they might not be deprived of the benefits of such a sacrifice, which was to procure them the completion of their wishes. This horrid custom prevailed long among the Phoenicians, the Tyrians, and the Carthaginians; and from them the Israelites borrowed it, although expressly contrary to the order of God.

"The original practice was to burn these innocent children in a fiery furnace, like those in the valley of Hinnom, so often mentioned in Scripture; and sometimes they put them into a hollow brass statue of Saturn, flaming hot. To drown the cries of the unhappy victims, musicians were ordered to play on different instruments—and mothers—shocking thought!—made it a sort of merit to divest themselves of natural affections while they beheld the barbarous spectacle. If it happened that a tear dropped from the eyes of a mother, then the sacrifice was considered as of no effect; and the parent who had that remaining spark of tenderness was considered as an enemy to the public religion. In later times they contented themselves with making their children walk between two slow fires to the statue of the idol; but this was only a more slow and excruciating torture, for the innocent victims always perished. This is what, in Scripture, is called the making their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Moloch; and barbarous as it was, yet those very Israelites in whose favor God had wrought so many wonders, demeaned themselves so low as to comply with it." (II Kings, xvi and xxi.) (Burder's History of All Religions, pp. 510, 511).

4. The Persians: "In remote times some Aryan tribes, separating from the other members of the Aryan family, sought new abodes on the plateau of Iran (East of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, and between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf). The tribes that settled in the south became known as the Persians, while those that took possession of the mountain regions of the northwest were called Medes. The names of the two peoples were always very closely associated, as in the familiar legend, 'The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.' The Medes were at first the leading people. But the leadership of the Median chieftains was of short duration. A certain Cyrus, king of Anshan, in Elam, overthrew their power, assumed the leadership of both Medes and Persians, and soon built up an empire more extended, so far as we know, than any established before his time." (Myers' General History p. 59).

5. Persian Literature: "The literature of the ancient Persians was mostly religious. Their sacred book is called the Zend-Avesta. The religious system it teaches is known as Zoroastrianism, from Zoroaster, its supposed founder. This great reformer and teacher is believed to have lived and taught about six centuries before our era.

"Zoroastrianism was a system of belief known as dualism. Opposed to the "good spirit," Ormazd (Ahura Mazda), there was a "dark spirit," Ahriman (Angro-Mainyus), who was constantly striving to destroy the good creations of Ormazd by creating all evil things;—storm, drought, pestilence, noxious animals, weeds and thorns in the world without, and evil in the heart of man within. From all eternity these two powers had been contending for the mastery; in the present, neither had the decided advantage, but in the near future Ormazd would triumph over Ahriman, and evil be forever destroyed.

"The duty of man was to aid Ormazd by working with him against the evil-loving Ahriman. He must labor to eradicate every evil and vice in his own bosom, to reclaim the earth from barrenness, and to kill all noxious animals—frogs, toads, snakes, lizards—which Ahriman had created. Herodotus saw with amazement the priests armed with weapons and engaged in slaying these animals as a pious pastime." (Myers' General History, p. 63).

6. The Religion of the Persians: "The religion of the Medes and Persians was of great antiquity, and probably taught by one of the grandsons of Noah, who planted colonies in those parts, soon after the confusion of languages. Noah had taught his children the knowledge of the true God; and that they were to trust in His mercy, through the mediation of a Redeemer. In Persia, the first idolaters were called Sabians, who adored the rising sun with the profoundest veneration. To that planet they consecrated a most magnificent chariot, to be drawn by horses of the greatest beauty and magnitude, on every solemn festival. The same ceremony was practiced by many other heathens, who undoubtedly learned it from the Persian and other Eastern nations.

"In consequence of the veneration they paid to the sun, they worshipped the fire, and invoked it in all their sacrifices, in their marches they carried it before their kings, and none but the priests were permitted to touch it, because they made the people believe that it came down from heaven. But their adoration was not confined to the sun; they worshipped the water, the earth, and the winds, as so many deities. Human sacrifices were offered by them; and they burnt their children in fiery furnaces, appropriated to their idols. These Medes and Persians at first worshipped two gods, namely, Arimanius, the god of evil, and Oromasdes, the giver of all good. By some it was believed that the good god was from eternity, and the evil one created; but they all agreed that they would continue to the end of time, and that the good god would overcome the evil one. They considered darkness as the symbol of the evil god, and light as the image of the good one. They held Arimanius, the evil god, in such detestation that they always wrote his name backward. Some ancient writers have given us a very odd account of the origin of this god Arimanius, which may serve to point out their ignorance of divine things. Oromasdes, say they, considering that he was alone, said to himself, 'It I have no one to oppose me, where, then, is all my glory?' This single reflection of his created Arimanius, who, by his everlasting opposition to the divine will, contributed against inclination to the glory of Oromasdes." (Burder's History of All Religions, pp. 520, 521).

7. Persian Worship: "The great monarchy of Persia, founded by Cyrus 100 years before, is now at this period (430 years before Christ), already tending toward its decline. A hundred years later, it is to fall before the triumphant march of Alexander and his Macedonians. But now it still retains the ancient faith of Zoroaster, though modified by the developments of a thousand years. Herodotus describes it as it existed at the period of which we speak. In his insatiate desire for knowledge, he had gathered up all that he could learn of Persia, and says: 'It is not customary for the Persians to have idols, temples, or altars. They offer sacrifices on the summits of mountains, not erecting altars or kindling fires, but they carry the animal to a pure spot, and there the sacrificer prays for the prosperity of the empire, the king, and all others.' * * * * * 'The Persians believe fire to be a god.'

"Herodotus we find to be correct. Here are no temples, no altars, no idol worship of any kind. The Supreme Being is worshipped by one symbol—fire, which is pure and purifies all things. The prayers are for purity, the libation the juice of a plant. Ormazd has created everything good, and all his creatures are pure. Listen to the priest chanting the litany, thus: 'I invoke and celebrate Ahura Mazda, brilliant, greatest, best. All perfect, all-powerful, all-wise, all-beautiful, only source of knowledge and happiness; he has created us, he has formed us, he sustains us.' 'He belongs to those who think good; to those who think evil he does not belong.' He belongs to those who speak good; to those who speak evil he does not belong. He belongs to those who do good; to those who do evil he does not belong.' This is the religion of the great race who founded the Persian Empire.

"To these worshippers life did not seem to be a gay festival, as to the Greeks, nor a single step on the long pathway of the soul's transmigration, as to the Egyptians; but a field of battle between mighty powers of good and evil, where Ormazd and Ahriman meet in daily conflict, and where the servant of God is to maintain a perpetual battle against the powers of darkness, by cherishing good thoughts, good words, and good actions." (Ten Great Religions—Clarke—pp. 11, 12)

8. Changes in the Persian Religion: "The religion of the Persians underwent a variety of very remarkable revolutions; for the Sabians, having fallen into disgrace, they were succeeded by another sect, called the Magi; who, on account of their pretensions to superior knowledge and sanctity, became extremely popular among the vulgar. Nay, such was the respect paid to them, that no king could take possession of the throne till he had been first instructed in their principles; nor could they determine any affair of importance till it had received their approbation. They were at the head both of religion and philosophy; and the education of all the youth in the kingdom was committed to their care.

"It is the general opinion, that the founder of the Magian religion was one Zoroaster, who lived about the year of the world 2,900; and it continued to be the established religion of the country for many years after. The priests kept up continual fires in their temples; and standing before these fires with mitres on their heads, they daily repeated a great number of prayers. The name of their chief temple was Amanus, or Namanus, which signifies the sun; and is the same with what we find under the name of Baal in Scripture. Their great reputation induced people to visit them from all parts of the known world, to be instructed by them in the principles of philosophy and mythology; and we are assured that the great Pythagoras studied many years under them." (Burder's History of All Religions, p. 521).