salem, yet it was in accordance, and probably through contact, with the Persian system of allowing sacrifice to be performed in all places and on every holy hill that there sprang up, side by side with the Temple service of Jerusalem, the more spiritual worship of the synagogue. The Persian doctrine of the Unity and the Invisibility of the Divinity, of a celestial and infernal hierarchy, which had never before received, so to speak, the sanction of the Imperial Powers of the earth, was substantially the counterpart to the corresponding elements of the Hebrew faith. The conclusion, therefore, is, that whilst these doctrines and practices sprang up indigenously in the Israel of this period, from reasons adequate to account for their growth at this particular juncture, yet they must, in all probability, have received an immense stimulus from the consciousness that the whole atmosphere of the vast neighboring and surrounding Empire was impregnated with the same truths. The small band of exiles must, if they were not exempt altogether from the weakness and strength of human motives, have felt that their confident trust in the Unity of the Divine Will, their belief in the multiplied subordinate ministers of that Will, their intense horror and gradual personification of the principle of Moral Evil, had acquired new form and bone and substance by the sympathy of an older, vaster frame of worship, inspiring and encouraging ideas which they themselves had been led to foster with a new and exclusive zeal. Even in detail it is not possible to avoid the conviction that the mystical number of the seven lamps, the seven watchers before the throne of God, were derived directly from the seven Amshaspands (" the "unsleeping ones"), who, like the seven Councillors 1 Kuenen, iii. 35. See Lecture XLIV. of the Persian King, encircled the presence of Ormuzd; and the name of the demon Asmodeus in the Book of Tobit is unquestionably the Persian "Aeshma-Deva,” 1 the spirit of concupiscence, who at times rose to the rank of the Prince of Demons. "2 But here we must pause. Not only is there no trace of Ahriman by name, but the idea of the separate coequal existence of the Evil with the Good Spirit is unknown to the Judaic creed, and even at the very moment of the first contact between the two systems the Prophet of the Captivity meets the doctrine of an eternal Dualism of Good and Evil-so natural in itself, and so deeply rooted in the Zoroastrian theology-by the announcement, as if in express antithesis: "I form "the light and create darkness. I make peace and "create evil. I the Eternal do all these things." And not only are the "watchers" the good and evil spirits of the Books of Daniel, of Tobit, and of Enoch (with the single exception of Asmodeus), called by Hebrew not by Persian names, but their functions are different The beneficent "messengers are far more closely bound up with human joys and sorrows than the hier archy which fills the vacant space of the Persian heaven and the malevolent accusers far more completely sub ordinate to the overruling power of the same Divine Master, to whom both good and evil are as ministers. There is, in short (such seems to be the result of the most recent investigation), a close affinity between the forms which the two religions assumed; but it is the 4 1 Kuenen, iii. 40. Compare the names of the demons in the Book of Enoch, ch. 6. Müller's Chips from a German Workshop, i. 148. Kalisch's Commentary, i. 310, 311, 316. 2 Isa. xlv. 1--7. 8 See Kalisch's Commentary, ii. 292–294. 3 4 Kuenen, iii. 35-44; Ewald, v. 184; Max Müller's Chips from a German Workshop, i. 142–159 affinity — with the exception of a few details - rather of a common atmosphere of lofty truths, of a simultaneous sympathy in their view of earthly and heavenly things, than the affinity of direct lineage and discipleship. It is a kinship, however, which did not cease with this period of the Jewish history. One great doctrine which, though mainly fostered from another quarter, was to be held in unison by the ancient followers of Zoroaster and the later followers of Moses and of Isaiah, is yet to be noticed the immortality of the soul. One vast influence the Persian religion was still to exercise, if not over the Jewish Church itself, yet over that which sprang from its bosom, through the worship of Mithras, which in the early centuries of Christendom was, partly as an ally, partly as a foe, to color the growth of its ritual and its creed. But this is far in the future. The connection of Judaism with the faith of Zoroaster, however explained, is not without instruction. Whatever there be of permanent truth in the substance of any of these beliefs will not lose in value if it was allied or be even traced to a religion so pure and so venerable as that of the Zendavesta. Whatever there is of transitory or excessive in the forms of any of these may be the more contentedly dropped if it can be shown to be derived from a faith which, however once powerful, now lingers only in the small sect of the Fire-worshippers of Bombay, who alone carry on the once formidable name of "Parsee " or " Persian." 3. If the influence even of Zoroaster and Cyrus on Judaism be open to question, it will not be expected 1. The germs which lay hidden in Judaism were fertilized by contact with a religion in which they had "arrived at maturity." Kuenen, iii. 63. The same view, substan that with the remoter Eastern regions any direct connection can be discovered. Once, and once Influence only, in the Hebrew records we catch a doubt- of China. ful glimpse of that strange race, which has been eloquently described to be at the eastern extremity of Asia what Judæa is at the western, "a people dwell"ing alone and not reckoned among the nations." When the Evangelical Prophet is calling the scattered exiles to return from the uttermost parts of the earth he extends his cry even to those that "come from the land "of Sinim." In that solitary word,2 if so be, the Empire of China rises on the religious horizon of the historic world. Not a vestige of its influence can be traced even on the outer circumference of the theatre on which the movement of mankind was then advancing. Yet, having in view the ultimate scope of that movement, it is impossible to learn without emotion that in the period which was close within the ken of the Prophet of the Captivity—in the very years in which Ezra was preparing for his mission to Palestine there drew to its close the career of one whose influence on his own nation was deeper than that of the mighty Scribe. In the year 478 Confucius died, himself the Ezra rather than the Moses of his race; "the transmitter, Death of "not the maker of belief, born not in posses- B. c. 477. 'sion of knowledge, but loving antiquity and in it seeking knowledge - for 2,000 years the supreme "and undisputed teacher of this most populous land" -- and leaving a memory of himself which is still perpetuated even in the very manners, gestures, and 66 1 Quinet, Génie des Religions, 293. 2 Isa. xlix. 12; Ewald doubts, Gesenius affirms, the identification of Sinim with China. 6 8 Müller's Chips, i. 311. Confucius, 4 Legge's Life of Confucius, 81 5 Legge, 95. Ed. Rev. cxxxix. 315, 316 dress of the Chinese of our day-leaving maxims which, though stamped with that homely and pedestrian character which marks the whole religion of his race, yet still secures for him a place amongst the permanent teachers of mankind. "The superior1 man is "catholic and no partisan- the mean man is a par"tisan and not catholic." "It is only the truly vir"tuous man who can love, or who can hate others." "Virtue is not left alone. He who practises it will "have neighbors." "To be able to judge of others by what is in yourselves may be called the Art of "Virtue." "When you are laboring for others, labor "with the same zeal as if it were for yourself." "The "man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established him"self, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others." 66 "Is "there one word which may serve as a rule for one's "whole life?" "Is not Reciprocity such a word?" "What you wish not to be done to yourself, do not to others.' In those words we cannot doubt that "an incense of pure offering went up," as Malachi proclaimed, "to "the Eternal God; even from the rising of the sun." To ask how and why the religion, the empire, the morality of China have not reached as far as and beyond the level from which they sprang would lead us too far away from this period. I fluence of India. 4. There was another career yet wider and nobler than that of Confucius - unknown to him and unknown to Ezra and Malachi in that vast country, which also is now for a moment, and for the first time, distinctly brought within the view of the Jewish world, although its products had penetrated 1 Legge, 95. • Legge, 226. 2 Legge, 138. |