CHAPTER I.

SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD.

Asia has been the fruitful source of religions and Bibles. The seven great religions of the world, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Mohammedanism, Judaism, and Christianity--all had their birth in Asia; and the so-called sacred books which are used to uphold and propagate these faiths were nearly all written by Asiatic priests and prophets. A brief description of the most important of these books will be presented in this chapter.

Sacred Books of India.

Vedas.--The Vedas are the oldest Bibles in the world. There are four of them, the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda. Devout Hindoos believe that these books have always existed--that they are co-eternal with God. Scholars agree that they are very old, that the Rigveda, the oldest of the four, and one of the oldest books extant, was composed between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. Each Veda is complete in itself, and consists of religious teachings, prayers, and hymns.

Puranas.--The Vedas and Puranas are the most important of the sacred books of the Hindoos. The Puranas, more than any other works, have contributed to mould the doctrines of the popular Brahmanical religion of India. They are eighteen in number, of which the Bhagavata, containing a history of Chrisna, is the one best known.

Tripitaka.--This is the Buddhist Bible. It was compiled 300 years before the Christian era. Self conquest and universal charity are its fundamental teachings.

Upanishads.--These are sacred books which treat of the Creation, of the Supreme Being or Spirit, Brahma, and of the nature of the human soul and its relation to Brahma.

Tantras.--The Tantras are sacred books relating chiefly to the God Siva.

Ramayana.--The Ramayana is one of the great epic poems of the world. It gives the history of Rama, one of the incarnations of the God Vishnu.

Mahabharata.--This is another epic poem, a larger one, containing more than 100,000 verses. Like the Ramayana, it is believed to be of divine origin. It has been described as "the great manual of all that is moral, useful, and agreeable."

Institutes of Menu.--Menu is regarded as the law-giver of the Hindoos, as Moses is of the Jews. The Institutes of Menu are in many respects similar to the so-called laws of Moses.

Sacred Books of China.

Yih King.--This book contains a cosmological treatise and a compendium on morals. It was written 1143 B.C.

Shu King.--This contains the teachings and maxims of certain ancient Chinese kings. There are documents in it over 4,000 years old.

Shi King.--This is the Chinese hymn book. It contains three hundred sacred songs and poems, some of which are very old.

Le King.--The Le King is a text book on manners, customs, and ceremonies. It has been one of the chief agents in moulding the social and religious life of China.

Chun Tsien.--The Chun Tsien is a historical work compiled by Confucius. It gives a record of his own times and those immediately preceding him.

The above books, called the Five Kings, are the canonical books of Confucianism, the religion of the educated classes of China. With the exceptions noted, they were mostly written or compiled about 500 B.C. They are considered sacred by the Chinese, but not, like other sacred books, a revelation from God. Confucius recognized no God. His religion is preeminently the religion of this world, and is thus summed up by him: "The observance of the three fundamental laws of relation between sovereign and subject, father and child, husband and wife, and the five capital virtues--universal charity, impartial justice, conformity to ceremonies and established usages, rectitude of heart and mind, and pure sincerity."

Sacred Books of Persia.

Zend Avesta.--This is one of the most important of all the Bibles of the world, although the religion which it teaches numbers but a few adherents. It was written by Zoroaster and his disciples about 3,000 years ago. It was an enormous work in size, covering, it is said, 12,000 parchments. The Zend Avesta proper consisted of twenty-one books. All of these, save one and some fragments of the others, have perished. They dealt chiefly with religion, but touched upon almost every subject of interest to mankind. They were believed to be a faithful record of the words spoken to the great prophet by God himself. Both Jews and Christians borrowed much from the Zend Avesta.

Sadder.--The Sadder is the Bible of the modern Parsees, and contains, in an abridged form, the religious teachings of Zoroaster.

Sacred Books of Islam.

Koran.--The Mohammedans believe that divine revelations were given to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Mohammed, and that each successive revelation in a measure superseded the preceding one. The books given to Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Abraham have been lost. The Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Four Gospels are accepted by them, but the interpolations and corruptions of Jews and Christians, they claim, have greatly impaired their value. The Koran is with them the book of books--God's last and best revelation to man. It was written in rays of light on a tablet before the throne of God. A copy bound in white silk and bedecked with gems was carried by Gabriel to the lowest heaven, where from time to time, during a period of twenty years, portions of it were transmitted to Mohammed until the whole was given to the world. The book is divided into 114 chapters. It is elegant in style, and, like most other Bibles, contains, along with a great deal that is fabulous and puerile, some admirable moral teachings.

Sunna.--The Sunna is a large work containing many thousand legends of Mohammed. It is a sacred book, but of less authority than the Koran.

Sacred Books of the Jews.

Torah.--The Book of the Law, now commonly called the Pentateuch, is the most sacred of all Jewish books. Jews as well as Christians believe that it was written by Moses and dictated by God. It was not divided into five books as we have it. In the oldest Hebrew manuscripts the entire work forms but one book. It was subsequently divided into parshiyoth, or chapters, and these into sedarim, or sections.

Nebiim.--The Law and the Prophets were the chief authorities of the Jews. The books of the Prophets, called Nebiim, were believed by the orthodox Jews to be divinely inspired, but were esteemed of less importance than the Torah.

Cethubim.--This collection of writings comprised the hymns, poems, and other books now known as the Hagiographa.

Talmud.--The Talmud, while not regarded as a divine revelation, like the Law and the Prophets, is in some respects the most important of Jewish works. It is almost a library in itself, and constitutes a vast storehouse of information pertaining to Jewish history and theology.

Sacred Book of Christians.

Holy Bible.--The Christian Bible consists of two collections of small books, one called the Old Testament, the other the New Testament. The Old Testament comprises the Torah, Nebiim, and Cethubim of the Jews. It is divided into 39 books (including the Apocryphal books accepted by the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, about 50). The New Testament is a collection of 27 early Christian writings, which originally appeared in the various churches of Asia, Africa and Europe.

The Bible is but one of many books for which divinity is claimed. Christians deny the divinity of the other books, however, and affirm that they are of human origin--that their book is God's only revelation to mankind. The orthodox claim respecting its divinity is expressed in the following words:

"Behind the human authors stood the divine Spirit, controlling, guiding, and suggesting every part of their different messages" (Birks).