ys of worship, praise,
and adulation of man. It has its prayers and hymns, its offerings and
sacrifices. Corresponding with our "Trinity" idea the Brahmin has his
three great gods; and in place of our "angels" he has his infinite
number of little ones.*

Next, Zoroastrianism, certainly twelve hundred years older than Christ,
has its legends (quite as authentic as our own) of miracles performed
by its founder and his followers; its Zend-Avesta (Bible); its "Supreme
Spirit;" its belief in gods and demons who interfere with affairs in
this world and who are ever at war with each other; its sacred fires;
its Lord; its praise; and its pretence to direct communication _in the
past_ with spirits and with gods who gave their Prophet "commandments."**
It lacks none of the paraphernalia of a "divine institution" ready
for business, and we are unable to discount it in either loaves or
fishes. It also has its heaven and hell;*** its Messiah or Prophet; its
arch fiend or devil; its rites and ceremonies.

* See Edward Clodd, F.R.A.S., "Childhood of Religions."

** "In the Gathas or oldest part of the Zend-Avesta, which
contains the leading doctrines of Zoroaster, he asks Ormuzd
[God] for truth and guidance, and desires to know what he
shall do. He is told to be pure in thought, word, and deed;
to be temperate, chaste, and truthful; to offer prayer to
Ormuzd and the powers that fight with him; to destroy all
hurtful things; and to do all that will increase the well-
being of mankind. Men were not to cringe before the powers
of darkness as slaves crouch before a tyrant, they were to
meet them upstanding, and confound them by unending
opposition and the power of a holy life. 'Oh men, if you
cling to these commandments which Mazda has given, which are
a torment to the wicked and a blessing to the righteous,
then there will be victory through them.'"
--Max Muller.

*** "In this old faith there was a belief in two abodes for
the departed: heaven, the 'house of the angels' hymns,' and
hell, where the wicked were sent. Between the two there
was a bridge."
--Ibid.

Professor Max Muller remarks: "There were periods in the history of the
world when the worship of Ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on the
ruins of the temples of all other gods. If the battles of Marathon and
Salamis had been lost and Greece had succumbed to Persia