238 REV. PROF. JAMES HOPE M0ELT0X, D.LIT., D.C.L., ETC., OX 



more dualism than in the New Testament. Evil begins with 

 the deliberate choice of a free agent, who thereby constitutes 

 himself the enemy of the Good Spirit : he is the complete 

 opposite of him in everything. I may quote the stanza where 

 the epithet ;c enemy M is used : — 



I will speak of the Spirits twain at the first beginning of the 

 world, of whom the holier thus spake to the enemy : 

 Neither thought nor teachings nor wills nor beliefs nor 

 words nor deeds nor selves nor souls of us twain agree. * 



The fight between the two Powers ranges over the whole 

 field of thought, word and action, and never ceases. But 

 Zarathushtra never betrays an instant's questioning as to the 

 result. He wistfully prays, in the hour of defeat and oppression, 

 that he may have some token of God's favour in this lite : — 



Shall I indeed earn that reward, even ten mares with a stallion 

 and a camel, which was promised unto me, 0 Mazdah, as 

 well as through thee the future gift of Salvation and 

 Immortality ? f 



Over and over again we hear the ringing note of certainty as 

 to the ultimate triumph of the good cause and the ruin of all 

 who embrace the evil, however confidently they may shake 

 their mailed fist here. There is no sort of equality between 

 the two Powers. As a merely speculative point, we might have 

 to admit that Mazdah has his omnipotence limited during the 

 present seon. Zarathushtra might have answered man Friday's 

 question, " AVhy God not kill debbil \ " by saying that He 

 cannot, till the hour comes. Christianity says rather that He 

 will not, since Evil is not to be destroyed by force, but by love. 

 Both agree in declaring that He will destroy it at the set time. 

 ** In vain doth Satan rase his hour " : if he does not know that 

 he fights vainly, it is only because ignorance is one of his 

 attributes, as the antithesis of the Wise Lord. This, however, 

 is a touch characteristic of the Magian dualism, which is so 

 much concerned to make the attributes of Ahriman exactly 

 balance those of Ormazd, that it has to enfeeble the Evil Spirit 

 lest he should usurp faculties of Ormazd. It is Magianisni 

 also which fixes an exact term for the strife. The conflict is 

 a gigantic game of chess, with a black piece equal and opposite 

 to every white one. And the formula is, as Mrs. Maunder 



* Yasna 45 2 . 



t Yasna 44 M . 



