252 



THE ZOROASTRIAN CONCEPTION 7 OF A FUTURE LIFE. 



forgetting that they owed their existence to those " unbelievers," 

 who were, in fact, their forefathers. Let us, then, have tolerance 

 for the beliefs of those ancient peoples who, not having our 

 advantages, developed faiths in many respects admirable, and let us 

 remember the good they did in their generation. 



The Meeting passed a unanimous and hearty vote of thanks to 

 Professor Moulton, and adjourned at 6.15 p.m. 



Lecturer's Reply. 



I need comment but briefly on the discussion, most of which I 

 have had the disadvantage of only reading in print. I shoukl 

 explain that I could not acknowledge as a " doctrine of immortality " 

 the belief in a Sheol where men had ' : no remembrance " of God. I 

 fully accept the view which Old Testament scholars seem generally 

 to advocate now; and in the book referred to on p. 247 (footnote) I 

 have tried to show how the incomparable loftiness of Israel's ultimate 

 conception of the Future Life was the consequence of its late arrival 

 along the road of a fruitful but sorrowful experience. 



The date of Zarathushtra is a problem on which I naturally do not 

 expect my ipse dixit to suffice. But Professor Orchard will find in my 

 Hibbert Lectures a very full discussion. The necessary brevity of 

 my delineation is no doubt responsible for the curious infelicity by 

 which one member accused Zoroastrianism of a deficient sense of sin. 

 Deficiency of course there is if the Gospel is the standard. 

 " Holiest " happens to be the commonest epithet of Mazdah, if the 

 usual translation is right. 



I might say that I add this postscript after receiving a call to go to 

 Bombay for a year and study the Parsees at close quarters. When 

 I return I shall be better able to appraise the contributions of 

 speakers who have been in India. 



