--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young, Levi Edgar collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 6 published: 1908-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Levi Edgar Young, "The World’s Great Religions—IV. Zoroastrianism," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 6 (April 1908): 461–464.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1106unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1106unse start_page: 461 end_page: 464 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1106unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The World’s Great Religions—IV. Zoroastrianism THE WORLD'S GREAT RELIGIONS. BY PROFESSOR LEVI EDGAR YOUNG, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. ZOROASTR1AN1SM. A new catholicity has dawned upon the world. All religions are now recognized as essentially divine. They represent the different angles at which man looks at God. Questions of origin, polemics as to evidences, erudite dissertations concerning formulae, are disappearing, because religions are no longer judged by their supposed accordance with the letter of the Bible, but by their ability to minister to the wants and fulfil the aspirations of men. The individual, what can it make of him? As it raises or debases, purifies or corrupts, fills with happiness or torments with fear, so is it judged to accord with the Divine will. The credentials of the Divine origin of every religion are to be found in the hearts and lives of those who believe it. The old intolerance has disappeared, and the old indifference that succeeded it, has well nigh disappeared also. The new tolerance of faith recognizes as divine all the creeds which have enabled men to overcome their beastial appetites with visions of things spiritual and eternal. — Universal Review, December, 1888. Creeds, causes, systems, sacred and profane, True mixed with false, adored by minds sincere— Think not 'tis error buoys them o'er the plain; Truth is their life, their star, how wide they steer. — Orson F. Whitney . We have been dealing with the religions of the East, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. We now turn our attention to a far different type of religious thought. The western world has given us the nations of progressiveness. India and China have remained for ages in their pristine hebetude, but on crossing into the valley of theTigro-Euphrates, one comes in contact with a wholly new interpretation of life. The Persians were the first people of the world to have a well organized worldempire, which rose to a height of power and grandeur, and then sank into a state of decay. The Persians are of the Aryan race, and, according to Bible 462 IMPROVEMENT ERA. tradition, are descendants of Japheth. They settled in the valley of the lower Tigro-Euphrates, near the shores of the Persian gulf. They were purely a nomadic people, and at first became star-worshipers. Though essentially religious, we know little about them until the time of their great King Cyrus, who in the sixth century B. C. conquered the old empire of the Babylonians and sent the captive Jews of Nebuchadnezzar's time back to their native land. It is hard to tell why Cyrus opened his heart to the "chosen of God," but there were undoubtedly political motives behind it. And yet one thing is certain: there was a very close resemblance between the religion of the Persians and that of the Jews. Some believe them to have had one common origin far back in pre-historic times. The Persians settled in a land that was extremely productive. They built proud cities and became a very independent and powerful people. Southern Persia is a land of roses to this day. The rose is a native of Persia, and possibly was introduced into western Europe, when Aristotle returned from the orient in the fourth century B.C. While China and India led a vegetative existence, Persia gave to the world a religion of light. The eastern religions, as we have seen, were purely subjective. That is, the summum bonum of life is found in self. The Brahman and Buddhist come to the state of absolute life through contemplation and prayer. With the Persians it is far different. Their religion is objective. Beyond self is the eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent universality, which is manifested in the Power of Light and the Power of Darkness. In other words, there are two influences without, that of Good and its antithesis, Bad. Ormuzd is the Lord of the Kingdom of Light; Ahriman, of Darkness. This is a pure dualism involving the soul of man in a terrific struggle throughout its career on earth. Persianism recognizes the absolute free will of man, by the exertion of which, man may rid himself of the influence of darkness and thereby put himself in harmony with the light. Through self-abnegation the Persian purifies his being, and at death he is taken to the AU-in-All, for which he had been longing. He frames in his mind that same conception of Deity that Cyprian did in the great Spanish skeptical drama, El Magico Prodigioso. Cyprian was a devout student who longed for the THE WORLD'S GREAT RELIGIONS. 463 knowledge of the higher world, and in his famous reply to the demon, who is ever contending for Cyprian's soul, he says: One soul, all hands, all vision, Good supreme, supreme in grace, One who cannot err, omniscient, One the highest, none can equal, Not beginning, yet beginner, One pure essence, one sole substance, One wise worker, one sole wilier. And though he in one or two Or more persons be distinguished, Yet the sovereign Deity Must be one sublime and single, The first cause of every cause, The first germ of all existence. Persianism in its fundamental surely resembles the old religion of Judaism; and it suggests the process of salvation as enunciated by the early church fathers when they taught the necessity of ridding the spirit of the restriction of matter, and "the rising above the realm of the particular and finite, and the retracing of our steps toward God." The Book of Job portrays the grand triumph of man over the influence of sin and Satan. In the end man may step into the "Light Eternal." The Bible of the Persians is the Zend-Avesta, and is considered by most scholars of today as authentic. According to Professor Dr. Heern, formerly professor of history in the University of Goettingen, it stands as "a genuine monument of antiquity." The date of its compilation is unknown, but it undoubtedly belongs to a period coming before the age of Nebuchadnezzar, the great Babylonian conqueror. Zoroaster was the prophet and lawgiver of the Persians, and the Zend-Avesta is a compilation of his teachings. He was a righteous man and lived the life of an ascetic, when Solomon was reigning proudly at his court in Jerusalem and when Tyre and Sidon controlled the maritime trade of the Mediterranean. Zoroaster addressed his doctrines to the King of Persia, and ever cautioned him and his people to step into the Light and Goodness of Ormuzd: I worship and adore the Creator of all things, Ormuzd, full of light. I worship the seven archangels or protecting spirits. [ And then further on he breaks 464 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . out as did Isaiah and Jeremiah, at times, invoking the love and protection of all that is holy. ] I desire by my prayer with uplifted hands this joy, the pure work of the Holy Spirit, Mazda, t * * * a disposition to perform good things, * * * and pure gifts for both worlds, the bodily and spiritual. I have entrusted my soul to heaven, * * * and I will teach what is pure so long as I can. I keep forever purity and good-mindedness. Teach thou me, Mazda, out of thyself; from heaven, by thy mouth, whereby the world first arose. Thee have I thought, 0 Mazda, to praise with the soul, * * * active Creator, * * * Lord of the worlds, * * * Lord of good things, * * * * the first fashioner, * * * who made the pure creation, * * * who upholds the best soul with his understanding. I praise 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. Now give ear to me and hear! the wise ones have created all. Evil doctrine shall not again destroy the world. In the beginning, the two heavenly Ones spoke— the Good to the Evil — thus: ''Our souls, doctrines, words, works, do not unite together." How shall I satisfy thee, 0 Mazda, I who have little wealth, few men? How may I exalt thee according to my wish? * * * I will be contented with your desires; this is the decision of my understanding and of my soul. How strange it was that while the Egyptians were worshiping the God Osiris, and the Greeks were finding their hopes realized in Zeus, the Persians were worshiping one Supreme Creator, a God of love and righteous order. The Zoroastrian, after a life of purity, goes to heaven where he dwells in ''immortal blessedness." Should he allow himself to become immoral in thought and deed in this life, his soul descends to hell, where he endures physical torment and the pangs of his own conscience. But no man is to be lost. The man of sin will rise again , for he will be restored by a Savior of the race . Some historians assert that the religion of Zoroaster influenced wonderfully the religion of the Jews. But may we not say that Persianism is borrowed directly from the prophecies of the old saints of Israel? The two religions are much alike, but as to the origin of Zoroastrianism, one is pretty much in the dark. t Mazda or Ormuzd, Ten Great Religions, by James Freeman Clarke. Salt Lake City, Utah.