from the contemplation of the painful subjects which this little book presents to the reader's notice, that it may give a fresh impulse to the earnestness of our desires after, and the heartiness of our prayers for that day in which great voices shall be heard in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever."

CHAPTER V.

RELIGION.

It is well known that the ancient Persians were not, like most other nations, worshippers of images, which indeed they abominated as much as, under another religion, they now do, and as much perhaps as the Israelites themselves did. Their idols were the natural elements, and in particular the fire, as the purest and most characteristic symbol or representative of the God they worshipped. Hence their religion was free from many of the grosser absurdities, and, it may be added, from most of the viler atrocities, of which the apostle has left a most awful and striking picture in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. But it was not the less an idolatry. For, although some of the most instructed men might regard the fire only as a symbol of the Divinity, as they understood His character and attributes, it is certain that

the great body of worshippers suffered their admiration to rest upon the altar fires, which they deemed sacred, without caring to penetrate the hidden meanings which the learned assigned to that worship.

This superstition is not extinct. It is still cherished by those descendants of the ancient Persians who retained the old religion, and of whom almost two thousand families still linger in the country, under the name of Guebres, but who are found in greater numbers in India, to which their ancestors retired, and chiefly about Bombay, under the name of Parsees. The two centuries of subjection to the Arabian caliphs, which followed the famous battle of Nahavund, in A.D. 641, more than sufficed to establish the Mohammedan religion in Persia; and the religion which was thus established, and which prevailed for more than seven centuries in Persia, differed in no respect from that which was professed in all Moslem countries, the system by which they are at present so much distinguished from all the other adherents of the false prophet being the adoption of a later age.

It must be understood that the law and doctrine of those who may be called the

orthodox Moslems-as the Arabians, Turks, and others are derived, first, from the Koran of Mohammed, and next, from his traditional sayings, which, as reported by his wives and companions, and as eventually expounded and reduced into a system by the four great doctors of the law, Haneefa, Malik, Shaffei, and Hanbal, became consolidated into one belief, which is called Sunnee; or, in other words, the belief of those who assent to the Sunna, or oral traditions, and who consequently acknowledge the first four caliphs, Abubekr, Omar, and Othman, from whom most of these traditions were derived, as the chosen companions and legitimate successors of Mohammed.

These

four saints or doctors above-mentioned, to whom the organization of the system of law and doctrine is owing, were, during their lifetime, regarded as holy and learned men, and, after their death, were, in a certain sense, canonized as the four Imaums, spiritual heads, or high-priests of the established faith. The four sects or schools founded by them, have been denominated the four pillars of the Sunnee faith, and each of them has a separate oratory in the temple of Mecca; but this, and other formal distinctions, which they have preserved

as separate sects, have not disturbed their union, which has been cemented by the common alarm at the progress of schisms, that threatened by their prevalence, not only to alter the faith, but to overthrow the whole system of their jurisprudence, which was established upon authorities, the purity and legality of which the schismatics openly denied.

Among the chief of these schisms was that of the Sheahs, which has for three centuries and a half been the established religion of Persia. This name of Sheah means heretic, and was applied, in the first instance, by the orthodox believers to the separatists. The great and essential difference between the Sunnees and the Sheahs, is not, after all, in any matter of doctrine or ceremonial. It lies in the opinion which the Sheahs have inherited from the immediate partisans of Ali, that the celebrated man of that name had a Divine and indefeasible right to have succeeded to the caliphat on the death of Mohammed, which right descended to his heirs.

As the peculiarities of the religion of the Persians are based very much upon historical events, it will be necessary, briefly, to state these circumstances, in order to render the