| Show I 1 SUNDAY SERMON 6 subject seekers after god in tho the southwestern portion of persia is situated tho the valley of famed afar for its beauty its roses its fruits its strong men its lovely 11 women am here it Is that the two erell lyric poets of persia had their home but more than for its beauty MILL and more than for being the home of poets like hafez and sandi this valley Is noted as til the site of the great grea temple of the religion of its ruins tell full well of its former beauty and grandeur marble arble 11 blocks sixty feet long fitted so 0 o nicely that the joints can hardly be detected tire arc built into it a great platform 1800 feet long feet bicad and quite high broad and beauteously carved marble steps lead up ill to the summit huge and finely carved d marble figures stand as silent sentinels at the steps bottom and top while smaller ones are at each cach steps end carved to represent those going up tip to worship when tile the summit of the terraced platform Is reached the remains of huge marble pillars are to be seen here m as once the great grea t temple wherein darius xerxes alta aita xerxes ruled and worshiped and here her were kept alive through long ions ages age s ane tic ever burning fires of tho the zoroastrian priests who was As near as can tell he was wai one who living about 2400 B C by the beauty of his great religious spirit and wisdom thought out a system of religion that served as tho the channel of service and praise for the persian and eastern peoples until the era of the mohammedan conques conquest t and which even eve today numbers its adherents by the hundreds of thousands to his great life work is attributed the origin of the sacred book of the persians the zend avesta it is only in fr recent times that this book has been fully known owing to the great graat antiquity of the characters in it was written and the refusal of the zoroastrian priests to read it or t teach e ach it to any but their own people one very odd feature of is its mention of a great climatic change it speaks of first five months winter and then a change to ten months of winter this was long considered sheer foolishness until recent investigation has shown that the aryan home was formerly in siberia and that the aryan people ere cre at a very early date driven from there by a great climatic change to this geology lends ends evidence as fossil remains of elephants ar are found in the siberian ice ice showing that once that was nias a warm region it w ws was s when the aryans u were ere driven from their old homo home that ekx waa led to meditate upon the power of bf evil for this was all he could see in the sudden n avalanche of snow and ice which changed his fertile warm country bilto a cold region so sudden suddenly y as to catch and freeze many of th the 10 wild b beasts abts in the ice fee and snow then thought out the nal principle of his religion L i 6 e a dualism of good and evil spirits and all life was a contest between those these good and evil spirits and their angels it is said that h books ks like faust faistl tl f fand and paradise lost could never haloj een written but for the evil spirits to be so real in this and evil spirit belief ed against the chate materialistic ateria listic tle apalit of bf his day da taught with a clearness the belief in the immortality of the soul in fact no religion has over ever given greater emphasis to personal immortality than did the thought of this dim character of so long ago but it was a hard thought to him for his god ivas anas one of cold clear justice and cold justice would be meted to everyone the only way to atone for evil done was to do good and at the close of life the score stood eternally as it stood when life closed his god knew no mercy or love or forgiveness I 1 gi veness what a hopeless despairing religion tor for a a sinning inning Si world the zend avesta consists largely of hymns and prayers the great spirits were worshiped on mountain tops and lofty stone atone altars fire was one of the chief symbols of their god the were prominently used in their worship in fact both astrology and fire worshipers trace much of their origin to and many of our star names are from him his followers today are far in advance of other oriental people they are most charitable until the lato late george peabody gave so liberally sir james ages ageo was the most charitable man on earth lie he giving with la lavish V ish hand to schools and asylums during the civil war the zoroastrian followers sent offerings to our sanitary commission I 1 though this may be said to be one of the loftiest loft iest it not the most lofty of all heathen rell religions gions yet when wo we corn compare paro it to our own it falls very short of 0 our standard it lias has ever been a religion of gres gressl sivo vo peoples because it has not one particle of inspiration in it it does not aid or lead to a better life it leaves the heart and emotions out oat ot of its category entirely it could never sing songs like our jonii its jook hook zend avesta Is ono one gi gibat eat round of formalism but most of all it falls fails when it has no hope or lovo love or sympathy to give to an erring orld we all know that we want and need more than justice we need love and mercy and for that we crae here is the great drawing and sustaining power of jesus christ chilst he is the loving merciful sympathetic savior that word savior Is unknown in the whole n balm alm of Zoro asters thought consequently his people havo have gone from sin to sin in sheer despair desimir do you know the full meaning of that word sartor you never will till jeans christ Is your our you need him now seek ecla him servo him I 1 this faith has 0 oer er been a passive one and the ze zeal at of mohamet Moli amet and buddha have ukon taken from it its millions ot of adherents in tho great persian region christianity can well learn this lesson from Zoro asters waned wane it Is not enough to 0 o havo have the truth iut hut ie Q inest also bo be active in ili adlie ronco to it and defense of it error has won the power it lias has through its zealous zea promulgators let the foll followers of christ see that no other faith has more zealous men than our master has bas we AVO have tho the truth lot let us add to it i the enthusiasm and zeal I 1 0 t o man mail but she is also a lawyer of experience anti and pos a lucrative practice her bond was fixed it at new york press |
