the Parsees were ever in the van, and bore the brunt of the terrible slaughter with which their enemies signalized their triumphs. For a long time the contest was doubtful, but at length the Parsee leader was slain and the allied troops gave way, pursued closely in their flight by the bloodthirsty disciples of the prophet. Defeated but not discouraged, the surviving Parsees again exiled themselves from their homes and emigrated to Bombay and Surat, where they now form a large portion of the population. Mr. Framjee, one of themselves, estimates their present number at about one hundred and fifty thousand, and five or six thousand are still found in Persia. The testimony of the East India Company's officers, and the officials of the British government in India, to the high character of the Parsees for integrity, morality, and devotion to the interests of the government under which they live, is uniform. They are regarded as the best native citizens in India, and are to a very considerable extent its bankers. Within a few years past they have made decided progress in female education, and in their matrimonial laws. They have also taken religious instruction, to a considerable extent, out of the hands of the Mobedo or hereditary priests, who are generally ignorant, and confided it to intelligent and devout laymen. In liberality to every deserving object of charity the Parsees have set a noble example to Christian nations. Their wealthy men have been very generally distinguished for benevolence. One of them, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, who deceased the past year, contributed to public objects of charity more than $1,500,000, and a considerably larger amount in private acts of beneficence.

Having thus given the religious history of this remarkable people, we proceed to give a brief sketch of their theological system, and our readers will, we think, find in it not only traces of the Semitic traditions and the legends of Eden, but evidence that more than once its Magi and reformers had come in contact with the revelations of Hebrew prophets, and possibly also with the New Testament Scriptures.

The Supreme Being, creator of heaven and earth, is Ormuzd. Far back in the ages of eternity he created seven spirits who should stand before his throne, and have rule over the phenomena of nature and the subsequent creations of his hand. These seven spirits were called Amschaspands. Chief of them all in glory, dignity, and power, was Ahriman; and next to him Bahman, Ardebehescht, Schariver, Stapandomad, Khordad, and Amerdad. Ahriman, stimulated by pride and ambition, sought the throne of the universe, and failing in this rebelled, leading with him in his revolt many of the inferior spirits. Thenceforth he became the power of evil.

Next in rank to the Amschaspands came the Izeds, twenty-four or twenty-eight in number. These seem to have been personifications of the powers of nature favorable to man. Below these were the Fravaschis or Ferusis, angelic beings and disembodied spirits of men, and perhaps of animals also.

When Ahriman had revolted from his allegiance to the Supreme Being, Ormuzd, for his own glory, set apart a period of twelve thousand years, during which Ahriman might be free and exercise his power. This æon or cycle was divided into four sub-periods of three thousand years each: during the first of which Ormuzd reigned supreme and completed his work of creation; during the second the contest began between Ahriman and himself; in the third the two parties to the conflict were to have, apparently, equal power; and in the fourth, which is now progressing, Ahriman has for a time the predominance, but in the final struggle is to be subdued and punished.

Ahriman, like Ormuzd, has surrounded himself with six chief spirits, who are as active in plotting evil as the Amschaspands in promoting good. Besides these, he has under his control a host of inferior malevolent spirits, to whom the general name of Devs or Davas is given: among these the Dronkhs carry off the bodies of the dead, the Yatus are enchanters, the Pareikas (the Peris of the Persians) are maidens of wonderful beauty who entice men to evil, the Koyas strike their victims with blindness, and the Karafnas with deafness. The Devs seem to be the impersonation of vices, impurities, and all noxious things.

During the first period of three thousand years after the revolt of Ahriman, Ormuzd created the sky, the sun, moon, and stars. He then made the fire, the wind, and the clouds; separated the solid part of the earth from the waters, bade the mountains raise up their heads, and planted among them Albordy, the father of the mountains, from which the sun and moon each start on their respective journeys. He next created the vegetable world, and first Hom, the type of all trees. He then formed Abudad, the great bull, from whose blood all the living things on the earth have sprung.

By this time Ahriman was ready to enter upon the contest. He first slew Abudad, but his body became the germ of all animals and of the first man, Kajamorz. The Devs, at Ahriman's command, slew him also; but Ormuzd caused the plant Reivas to grow out of his body, and at the end of fifteen years it matured, and bore as fruit fifteen pairs of human beings, the first of whom were Meshia and Meshiana, the parents of the present race. After each act of creation Ormuzd rested and celebrated the festival Gahunbar.

Ahriman, finding himself foiled in his efforts to destroy the human race at the beginning, changed his tactics, and sought by his own influence and that of his Deus to seduce them from their allegiance to Ormuzd. In this effort he has been but too successful. Ormuzd requires of all human beings three things: Homute, hookhte, and vurusté, purity of speech, purity of action, and purity of thought. These requirements, to men enticed to wickedness by the temptations of the Devs, which fall in with the evil propensities of each, seem a hard matter, and many fall and are lost. When death comes there is a struggle for three days between the Feruers and the Devs for the possession of the deceased. At the end of that time, if the soul is pure, a fair and beautiful maiden comes and leads the disembodied spirit away to the land of the blest; but if it has yielded to the temptations of Ahriman, a hideous hag appears, who hurries it to the place of torment. At the end of the world, the bodies of the dead will be raised and united with their spirits.

At the expiration of the twelve thousand years Sosiosh or Caoshyanc, the promised redeemer, shall come, annihilate the power of the Devs, awaken the dead, and sit in final judgment upon spirits and men. Immediately after this the comet Gurzscher will be thrown down and the world will be destroyed by fire. The remains of the earth will then sink down into Duzakh (hell) and become, for thirty-six thousand years, a place of punishment for the wicked. The just who may be living upon the earth at the time of its destruction, will pass through this fiery ordeal unscathed, and enter upon their inheritance of blessedness in a new heaven, Govodmone, and a new earth, created for them by Ormuzd. At the expiration of the thirty-six thousand years, Ormuzd will have compassion on the wicked and will pardon their sins, and admit into heaven those who seek it by penitence and prayer. After a still longer period of suffering and purification, Ahriman himself, and the spirits who accompanied him in his rebellion, will give evidence of their penitence and be admitted into heaven, where they will chant the praises of Ormuzd.

The Parsee worship consists of reading portions of the ZendAvasta, (the language of which, however, is understood by very few,) adoring the sacred fire as a symbol of Ormuzd, sprinkling themselves with consecrated water, praying to Ormuzd and the good spirits, and partaking together of bread and wine.

They are very strict in regard to ceremonial uncleanness, especially that induced by touching a dead body. The defilement resulting from this can only be removed by a long process of purification. When a Parsee dies, his body is borne at the end of three

days to the tower of silence (a lofty building erected on a hill or terrace) and placed on a grating near the top of the tower, which is open. The flesh is plucked from the bones by birds of prey and insects, and the bones fall after a time into a receptacle beneath, whence they are taken and placed in a suitable shrine.

A people whose religious traditions approach thus nearly to those of the ancient people of God, and among whom the feeling of the necessity of personal holiness and purity is yet a living principle, cannot be far from the kingdom of God. Their very morality may indeed, like that of the young ruler in the Gospel, for a time prevent their hearty and willing reception of salvation through Christ; but we cannot doubt that God has purposes of mercy toward a race so wonderfully preserved from idolatry, and that ere long the Parsees will be among the trophies of Immanuel, and, by their intellect, influence, and wealth, prove the most successful propagandists of Christianity among the nations of India. May he hasten the time.

ART. VII.-THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSON OF CHRIST.

THE scope of our investigation, to harmonize with the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ his true humanity, does not require us to demonstrate the former; we take it for granted. Nor do we consider it necessary to examine in detail the testimony of the New Testament concerning the true humanity of the Son of God. This also is granted on all sides. The impression which the Evangelists make upon us is evidently this, that the birth and life of Jesus was really and truly human. Born of a woman, in the entire helplessness of an ordinary child, he increased both in years and in wisdom. In keeping with the laws of our physical life, he felt hungry, was tired, etc. In the same manner his physical life appears as really human; he feels grief and joy, indignation and pity, etc.

It is evident that the New Testament represents Jesus both as a true man and very God; it must also be conceded that humanity and divinity are not predicated of Christ as existing in him side by side of each other, as if the humanity and the divinity in Jesus were two separable, though closely connected, constituent parts of him, or as if the God-man Jesus Christ was a compound being consisting of a God and a man. The whole New Testament speaks only of one Christ, the incarnate Son of God, the incarnate Logos that was in the beginning with God and that was God, God manifested in

the flesh. For this reason the Christian Church has at all times taught that Jesus, uniting in himself two natures, the divine and the human, was in one person very God and very man, equal to the Father according to his Godhead, like unto us according to his humanity in all things, sin excepted.

But to this union of two opposite natures in one person, such as are the divine and the human, it is objected, that it involves not only a mystery that transcends human reason, but something selfcontradictory and therefore impossible. "God," it is said, “is eternal and infinite, man is created and finite; the Eternal One cannot be conceived as born in the course of time. Again, God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, while man is impotent and limited, both as to his being and knowledge. God is supremely blessed, absolutely independent, and governing all things; while man is capable of suffering and dependent. How can, then, one and the same person be eternal and created, omnipresent and finite, omnipotent and limited in power, omniscient and lacking in knowledge, uninterruptedly happy and suffering, at the same time?"

In such a juxtaposition these predicates appear indeed irreconcilable. But supposing the matter to be as represented, our inability to reconcile them would be no valid reason why we should doubt their union in Jesus Christ. The proofs of true divinity and true humanity in Christ are not less convincing and irrefutable, if we cannot understand the manner in which God and man are one in him. Our very inability to understand this HOW forbids us to look upon the fact itself as something self-contradictory. The historical phenomenon of Jesus Christ is rationally inexplicable, except we ascribe to him divinity proper and true humanity. We are therefore not justifiable to deny either of these predicates because we cannot comprehend the manner of their union. Even the science of mathematics must recognize a manifest contradiction in the proposition that two lines may for ever approximate toward each other without ever meeting! To purely immaterial beings, as the angels, the existence of a being that is composed of spirit and matter, that is mortal and at the same time immortal, such as man is, might possibly appear as self-contradictory as does to the skeptic the union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. Even to ourselves the union of body and soul is incomprehensible, and infinitely more incomprehensible is to us the Divine Being; how can we then presume to affirm that the union of divinity and humanity in one person is self-contradictory and impossible? Where is the proof that it was impossible for the eternal Son of God to have, in addition to his eternal divine form of existence, also