Imatges de pàgina
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the scruples respecting legal purity to such lengths, that a strict and scrupulous man might occupy a third of his time in acts of purification. This religion lies so much more than even that of the Jews in "meats and drinks, and divers washings," Heb. ix. 10, as to become quite as burdensome as the Jews had rendered the ceremonial law of Moses in the time of Christ. So very oppressive indeed is it, that the courage and patience of self-righteousness-its strong shoulders and iron sinewscould alone be sufficient to sustain them; and it is, perhaps, necessary to witness these things to realize the full sense of the liberty with which Christ has made us free. Every other religious system, however cunningly devised, is a slavery and a burden-nor is there any other in which a shadow of freedom for the soul can be found. Among the Persians, men whose conduct in life affords no evidence of any kind of religious or moral principle, are often found to be the most scrupulous in their ceremonial purifications; and it is scarcely possible to live a day among this people without having occasion to realize a most vivid recollection of our Lord's denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees—"Woe unto you, hypocrites!

for make clean the outside of the ye

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and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess," Matt. xxiii. 25.

The Moslems like the Jews, Lev. xv. 13, prefer performing their ablutions at running waters, and when this is inconvenient or impracticable, care is taken that the water used shall so far run in the application that the same water shall not be twice applied to their persons. In the absence of running water, still water may be used; in the absence of clean water, foul water; and in the absence of any water, dust, sand, ashes, and even dried dung, may be rubbed over the party requiring ablution. It may, therefore, be easily conceived that these ablutions do not in all cases contribute to personal cleanliness.

There is no people who carry the pharisaical washing of cups and pots," Mark vii. 4, to

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the same extent as the Persians. Even as a strict Jew could not enter the house of a heathen, or partake of his food, without pollution-so neither does any Persian, who has regard for his religious character, partake of the food, the cup, or the pipe of a Christian or of any one of those he regards as an infidel-that is, of any who are not of his own faith. This, however,

does not so much, so far as we were ever able to learn, arise from any conception that your religion in itself renders you unclean, as from the belief that your habitual use of food and drink which his law teaches him to regard as unclean and defiling, has imparted to you, as it would to himself, a personal uncleanness, which is transmitted to all you touch, so far as to render it unfit for their food. The Turks, though a much less tolerant people, lay comparatively little stress upon these matters, which engage the chief solicitude of the Persians. A Turk will not refuse to partake of a Christian's food, while he has reason to know or believe that it contains nothing unclean; nor will he hesitate to drink from the same cup that a Christian's lips have touched, or even to drink the remainder of what he may at table have left in his glass. We remember to have been so often annoyed upon journeys in Persia, in seeing persons breaking the earthen vessels from which we had drunk, or in vigorously scouring those of metal or of wood which had been defiled by contact with our impure lips, that we provided ourselves. with a cup of tinned copper, in which to receive from their vessels the draught of water we had sometimes occasion to solicit. So also, when a

Persian has received a Christian into his house, there will follow a general purification of all the metal vessels, and a breaking of all those of earthenware which he may have used in drinking or in the preparation of food.

The following remarks of Mr. Southgate, on this subject, we can corroborate from our own observation: "It is in this particular of the ceremonial uncleanness of a man of another religion that the Persians differ most widely from the Turks-most widely, I mean, so far as regards those things which meet most frequently the observation of the traveller. On this point, the Persians generally receive opinions and practice from education. Their religious directions are most minute concerning it even to indecency. There are many, especially among men in public stations, who are entirely neglectful of such precepts, and they are strictly followed only by the religious orders and the common people. Among the former they are doubtless mingled with bigoted feelings, and regarded in a very serious light. Among the latter it was a mere matter of unthinking imitation. They are strict in some points, and neglectful in others. They are careful to avoid the most prominent and notorious unclean

nesses, while they are continually polluting themselves with those which, though of less importance, are equally forbidden. A servant sometimes will not eat of a dish of which his Christian master has partaken, and yet he will suffer himself to be rendered religiously impure in a thousand other ways. These notions, therefore, should not be considered as indicative always of bigotry, or even of sincere attachment to Islamism. There are many who rigidly practise this who can boast no other religion, besides those who never perform the stated prayers, or observe any other precept of their faith."

It might be supposed that this keen sense of the uncleanness of those who are not of their own religion, would have the effect of making them less tolerant of their presence. But this is not the case. There is no Moslem power in Asia which allows so much freedom of hand and tongue to others as do the Persians. In Turkey, and especially in Roumelia, a Christian subject would be punished with death who should dare to lift his hand against a Moslem. But in Persia, the Christian enjoys almost as much freedom as the lower class of Moslems themselves. He may complain if insulted, and

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