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appeared they were greeted by the students and spectators with cheers, while the appellants were received frequently with hisses. There is no doubt that Professor Smith's bearing and brilliancy in the debates which followed won him many admirers, if not friends. He presented his defense not only with ability, but with a spirit of candor. His readiness of speech, his brilliant sallies, his wealth of resources in debate, his su preme confidence of being able to meet any questions that might be raised by his opponents, were apparently appreciated, and were effective in his behalf. His rather neat retort to Dr. Begg, who had said that some were trembling for the safety of the Church, was greatly relished, for the doctor, albeit of the soundest orthodoxy, is not considered the loveliest character in the Church. "I would warn him," said Professor Smith, "of the fate of Eli, who, trembling for the safety of the ark, fell and perished."

The vital question before the assembly-we may pass over the other points-was Professor Smith's view of Deuteronomy, stated in the second particular as follows:

That the book of inspired Scripture called Deuteronomy, which is professedly an historical record, does not possess that character; but was made to assume it by a writer of a much later age, who therein, in the name of God, presented in dramatic form instructions and laws as proceeding from the mouth of Moses, though these never were, and never could have been, uttered by him.

The position of the defense was, that this was not opposed to the Confession, which, indeed, says nothing as to how the books of the Bible were collected, or handed down, or as to who wrote them. It does not even attribute the books of the Pentateuch to Moses, nor the Psalms to David. Therefore, it was argued, the charge assumes what the Confession does not declare, and ought to fall. Sir Henry Moncreiff, who was the chief speaker in opposition to the accused, while admitting that the Confession lays down no theory of inspiration, contended that there might be theories of inspiration which the Church could not safely sanction. The Confession declares that the Bible is infallibly true: there is testimony in Deuteronomy and in other parts of the Bible that the book is historical, and even that it is of Mosaic authorship--therefore Professor Smith, in denying that it is "historical," denies the doctrine of the

Confession. His theory amounted to Kuenen's assertion, that Deuteronomy was a "pious fraud." How is it conceivable that God could inspire a man to write the book seven centuries after Moses' death, and impute it to Moses? It was a "literary impossibility." Destroy its historical character, and you destroy its inspiration. Furthermore, if such criticism can be made of Deuteronomy, why may it not be made of other books of the Bible? Who could then say what is authoritative? It was curions that the Jews should have preserved a book which was not what it assumed to be, and that Christ and his apostles should have quoted passages from it as coming from Moses.

It was not denied on the part of Professor Smith that his views differed from those held by the Church. But the views of the Church were not the standard by which he was to be condemned, but the Confession. It was true that the Confession required that the "inspiration, infallible truth, and divine authority" of the Scriptures should be accepted, but the accused did accept them, and of Deuteronomy, too. "The charge against me," he contended, "must fall to the ground if I can show that the traditional views which I have surrendered are really encumbered with difficulties so grave that it cannot be safe for the Church to forbid her members to aim at the construction of some more consistent account of the biblical facts." He did not hold that a "pious fraud" had been committed, but that the confusion arose from the meagerness of the Hebrew language at the time Deuteronomy was written. "Had the Deuteronomist lived in the nineteenth century he would very likely have prefaced the book with a preamble to the effect that it was a development of what had gone before;" but the Professor confessed if he were asked to translate such a preamble as that into Hebrew he should find himself nonplused. The language had not then developed its abstract form of expression.

The arguments of Professor Smith, and speeches from such men as Dr. Rainy, Professor Salmond, and Dr. Candlish, to the effect that there had been no direct contradiction of the Confession, very nearly brought the assembly out from under the influence of Sir Henry Moncreiff. It was only by a majority of 23 votes in a total vote of 579, that the assembly passed a resolution declaring that, "according to the teaching of the

Westminster Confession, Deuteronomy is a thoroughly inspired record." It also amended the libel, and sent it back to the Aberdeen Presbytery for re-trial. The new trial, begun in September, will doubtless end as did the former; the final issue must be fought in the assembly.

*

The "progressionists" claim a substantial victory in the fact that the assembly has virtually declared that liberty of speculation on biblical subjects may be enjoyed so long as the letter of the Confession is not violated; and one of them, Professor Lindsay, attempts the rather difficult task of showing that the Church has declared that "critical freedom" and "dogmatical orthodoxy" are not " antagonistic," but may "co-exist." To most observers it seems rather that the Free Church is letting go its hold on "dogmatic orthodoxy," and beginning to drift on the same sea on which the Reformed Churches of the Continent wrecked their faith.†

ART. VII. THE ZENDAVESTA.

Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsis. By MARTIN HAUG, Ph.D., late Professor of Sanscrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Munich. Second Edition. Edited by E. W. WEST, Ph.D. London: Trübner. 1878.

CERTAIN forms of Paganism which were once powerful and widely spread have passed away forever. "Cloud-compelling Zeus" no longer holds his throne on the snowy top of Olympus ; and although the Parthenon still stands forth in the bright air of Attica a most majestic ruin, yet the name of the goddess whose image once guarded the stately fabric is a sound known in Athens itself only to a portion of the inhabitants. So have disappeared many other systems of belief: Druidism, the

"Contemporary Review," August, 1878.

Besides the publications already named, the following give information on matters treated in this article: Professor Smith's "Answer to Libel, and Additional Answer," etc., in pamphlets. Edinburgh: David Douglas. 1878. "Report of Proceedings of Aberdeen Presbytery, with Form of Libel, and Report of Proceedings of Free Church Assembly of 1878." Edinburgh: J. Maclaren. Speech on the Subordinate Standards," by Dr. Cairns. Edinburgh: Wm. Oliphant & Co.

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We employ the usual designation. The Avesta would be more correct.

religion of the Celts; the faith of the Teutonic races, the broken relics of which are found in the Scandinavian Edda; the bruteworship of Egypt, so strangely combined with ideas of considerable elevation; the Syrian deities, Moloch, Chemosh, and the rest, whose character and worship Milton describes in four words, "lust hard by hate;" the Assyrian and Babylonian systems, which were noted chiefly for divination and magic; and the Phrygian and other religions of Asia Minor, which were enthusiastic, that is, wild and frantic, to an incredible degree -these, and many other forms of faith, have fallen, and cannot rise again. Recent investigations have been bringing to light a creed which was probably more ancient than any of those we have yet mentioned that of the Akkadians; which was still more of a magical character than even those Babylonian and Assyrian systems which it powerfully affected.

But in the farther East there are forms of religion possessed of greater vitality than any of those we have enumerated. When we try to discover their origin, we have to search for it amid the darkness of a very remote past; and although all of them are wasted and worn, yet the day of their final dissolution may be still far off. One of these ancient Oriental systems is Zoroastrianism. Professor C. de Harlez, of Louvain, speaks in the following terms of this religion:

The religion which bears the name of Zoroaster, and of which the Avesta was the code, is certainly the most remarkable which profane antiquity produced. More than any other it approaches natural religion; it distinguishes itself among them all by conceptions more sober, more healthy, (saines,) and more moral. . We cannot, then, be surprised that the learned world takes a lively interest in investigating its date and its cradle.

Apart from its being the most ethical form of heathenism, it claims attentive regard as having been the faith of the ancient Persians, whose history touches so remarkably that of the Jews, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Moreover, none of the religions of pagan antiquity exercised a wider influence, or more largely attracted the attention of reflecting men, than that which was said to have been promulgated by the illustrious Zoroaster.

Very great obscurity still rests on the origin, the history, and the doctrines of Zoroastrianism. We regret that our lim

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its will not allow us to state with much fullness the process investigation as it has been carried on by modern scholars. When the inquiry was commenced, nearly every thing was uncertain. Even before the Christian era all distinct traces of the age, the character, and the doings of Zoroaster had been lost. Pliny believed that there must have been more than one personage of the name; and Stanley, the author of a well-known "History of Philosophy," laboring to reduce to order the chaos. of conflicting statements, was disposed to maintain that there must have been no fewer than six. Herodotus is the earliest Greek writer that refers to the Persian religion. Hermippus (B.C. 250) is said to have diligently examined the Zoroastrian books, and to have written a work on the Magi. It was probably from him that Plutarch drew the views of the Persian faith which are given in his treatise regarding Isis and Osiris. Agathias (A.D. 500) has a brief but valuable notice of the dif ference between the creed as it existed in his day and what he holds to have been its older form. After the conversion of Armenia to Christianity it had to maintain its faith against the fierce attacks of Zoroastrian Persia; and from some of the Armenian writers, particularly Eznik and Eliseus, we receive important statements regarding the Persian religion of the fourth and fifth centuries. After the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in the middle of the eighth century, Mohammedan writers not unfrequently mention the ancient faith of the country and its followers.

But when all the information that could be gleaned from the source we have mentioned was collected together, the result was far from satisfactory. The views of the various authors were often vague, and sometimes irreconcilable. Previous to the year 1700 no work of standard excellence had been published on the subject of the Zoroastrian faith. In that year, however, appeared a work entitled, Historia religionis veterum Persarum eorumque Magorum, by Dr. Thomas Hyde, Professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford. A second edition came out in 1760, in a volume of 580 pages. Hyde was a man of much learning, well acquainted with Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian. He carried on his researches with praiseworthy zeal and perseverance, and amassed a large amount of information regarding the Persian faith; but his attempts to expound it were unsuc

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