of light, early identified with the sun.  Hence, practically, the supreme god of the Persians was the same that was worshipped in Assyria and Egypt and India,—­the sun, under various names; with this difference, that in Persia there were no temples erected to him, nor were there graven images of him.  With the sun was associated a supreme power that presided over the universe, benignant and eternal.  Fire itself in its pure universality was more to the Iranians than any form.  “From the sun,” says the Avesta, “are all things sought that can be desired.”  To fire, the Persian kings addressed their prayers.  Fire, or the sun, was in the early times a symbol of the supreme Power, rather than the Power itself, since the sun was created by Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd).  It was to him that Zoroaster addressed his prayers, as recorded in the Gathas.  “I worship,” said he, “the Creator of all things, Ahura-Mazda, full of light....  Teach thou me, Ahura-Mazda, out of thyself, from heaven by thy mouth, whereby the world first arose.”  Again, from the Khorda-Avesta we read:  “In the name of God, the giver, forgiver, rich in love, praise be to the name of Ormazd, who always was, always is, and always will be; from whom alone is derived rule.”  From these and other passages we infer that the religion of the Iranians was monotheistic.  And yet the sun also was worshipped under the name of Mithra.  Says Zoroaster:  “I invoke Mithra, the lofty, the immortal, the pure, the sun, the ruler, the eye of Ormazd.”  It would seem from this that the sun was identified with the Supreme Being.  There was no other power than the sun which was worshipped.  There was no multitude of gods, nothing like polytheism, such as existed in Egypt.  The Iranians believed in one supreme, eternal God, who created all things, beneficent and all-wise; yet this supreme power was worshipped under the symbol of the sun, although the sun was created by him.  This confounding the sun with a supreme and intelligent being makes the Iranian religion indefinite, and hard to be comprehended; but compared with the polytheism of Egypt and Babylon, it is much higher and purer.  We see in it no degrading rites, no offensive sacerdotalism, no caste, no worship of animals or images; all is spiritual and elevated, but little inferior to the religion of the Hebrews.  In the Zend-Avesta we find no doctrines; but we do find prayers and praises and supplication to a Supreme Being.  In the Vedas—­the Hindu books—­the powers of Nature are gods; in the Avesta they are spirits, or servants of the Supreme.

“The main difference between the Vedic and Avestan religions is that in the latter the Vedic worship of natural powers and phenomena is superseded by a more ethical and personal interest.  Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd), the living wisdom, replaces Indra, the lightning-god.  In Iran there grew up, what India never saw, a consciousness of world-purpose, ethical and spiritual; a reference of the ideal to the future rather than the present; a promise of progress; and the idea that the law of the universe means the final deliverance of good from evil, and its eternal triumph.” [1]