the
Zend-Avesta and the other Bibles of humanity. Every one can readily form a
just judgment of these Bibles. The light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world shines from many pages in all of these books. There
are profound thoughts of God, noble ethical ideals, deep perceptions of
sin, yearning desires for human good, gleams of life beyond the grave.
There are prayers we could use here with a few verbal changes, and you
would not recognize their pagan source. There are songs of praise which
might be made our canticles. There are parables that the Master Himself
might have spoken. But the light which shines from heaven through these
books does not disguise their earthly character. Having no glamor of
tradition over our eyes, we can see them to be histories, poems,
philosophies, rituals, counsels of religion, hallowed by age into Sacred
Books.

Yet we find precisely the same notions current in each race about its
Bible that we have cherished concerning our own Bible. The Hindu talks of
his Vedas as the Christian talks of his Testaments. Nay, we find our
conceits quite outdone in the dogmas of these heathen. Mohammedan doctors
of divinity divided into fiercely contesting parties over the question
whether the Koran was created or uncreated; the latter theory, as most
highly magnifying their Sacred Book, of course, becoming the orthodox
doctrine. These learned orthodox divines assured men that the Koran was
verily eternal and uncreated, and of the very essence of God; that the
first transcript of it had been from everlasting by His throne; that a
copy, in one volume, on paper, was, by the hands of the angel Gabriel,
sent down to the lowest heaven in the month of Ramadan; from whence
Gabriel revealed it to Mohammed in instalments, giving him the privilege,
however, of beholding the heavenly volume, bound in silk and adorned with
gold and precious stones, once a year.

We cannot mistake the fact that thoroughly human writings have been
exaggerated into super-human scriptures by the deference rightly called
forth towards these venerable books, so influential in the histories of
nations, so potent in the lives of men; and we can study the phases
through which a wholesome reverence degenerated into a puerile
superstition.

Bibliolatry is pushed to a _reductio ad absurdum_ in these pagan worships
of their Sacred Books. Men will see their folly in the reflected light of
these kindred follies, and another superstit