The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1893-05-20
THE SACRED BOOKS.
The Religious Instincts of the Worid-the
Sacred Books OF Different Religions.

Mohammed The title of this means
The Reading" from the Arabic verb
for "to read" Other names are Al HI
tab, or the book: Al Moshaf, the volume;
Al Dhikr, the admonition or reminder;
and Al Forhan, or the salvation. The ia
suras or chapters of the Koran were
professedly given to Mohammed during
the twentv-three wears of his residence
at Mecca and Medina, by the Angel Ga
briel in human form, as an inspiration
from Aleah, or the Almighty They
were written upon leaves, bits Of
leather or paper, shoulder blades of
mutton and whatever else was at
hand. and thrown loosely into a box,
from which they were taken the year
after the prophets death and put to-
gether, with equal looseness and dlsre-
gard to connection of topics, IN vol
| umes. Not only is the God of the
| Christians recognized, but also Jesus,
though not as the Son of God, and
Abraham Jacob and Mary and the Old
| Testament worthless The style of the
Koran is of singular elegance and
beauty, constituting it the classic of
Arabic speech.
much more ancient collection of
| writings is the Vedas, the Oldest books
in the Hindoo literature, and dating far
back Of the time of Christ. The oldest
| hymn of the Oldest book, the Rig Neda,
is thought to date from b. G. 2400.
| The Upanishads, or treatises of theolo-
ogy, are later, and are almost the only
| part of the Nedas now read. The four
| divisions of the Nedas contain in all
! 1,010 hymns, which every Brahmin
must learn by heart. They are rocog-
nized in the laws of Man, which form
| the text book of Brahminism. They
were written in twelve books ten to
nine centuries before Christ. The
mythology Of the HindOos is comprised
mainly III two great epic poems, the
| Ramayana and the Mahabharata, con
! tanning respectively 80, 900 and 120, 600
| lines, and together filling eighteen large
| volumes. These are now almost ex-
| clusivelv read as the sacred books of
| India, with the Puranas, of similar
| character but much later date. The
| Shasters or ShastraS ("bOoks") IS a gen
| eral term for all the authoritative rehg
| ious and legal works of the Hindoos
! The Buddhist sacred books are also
very numerous, but | find no name for
them except the "Pitchas," or Buddhist
scripture, IN the Pale language, found
in Ceylon.
The Zend-Avesa q. e., the text or
| scripture with a zend, or commentary
is the Bible of the ancient parsees or
| tire-worshipers. 1t is supposed to have
! been written in Bactria or Eastern Per
STA, 1880 to 1900 B. G., by Ioroaster or
/ Zarathustia. Unlike most other sacred
! books, it is not body Of divinity or
! dogmatic religion, but it is a liturgy, a
collection of hymns, prayers, inyoca-
/ tions and thanksgIvmgS to many deitjes.
! 1t IS a manual of Worship, to be recited
/ 10y the priest in public and read private
| " bv the laitv The Bude-Nesch is 4
! later book Of the same religion, and de
| tails the Parsee doctrine from old texts
! now lost
The religion Of Confucius, the prin-
cipal faith Of China, is taught in the
five and four books Of the Kings.
King in Chinese, means simply a
web Of cloth, or the warp that holds
threads OF cloth in their place The
five Kings contain history, poetry and
/ rites OF religion. They seem to have
| been in existence before Confucius,
/ whose last Years We're devoted to is
| editing. His own teachings are other
wise embodied in the four Kings, which
! were promulgated after his death. The
! last Of these includes the works of Men
/ Cius, another Chinese retormer IaOlsin.
! or the religion founded by Lao-tZe. IN
the same age with ConfUclu-. rests upon
/ the books called the Use Lao, on odd
! Teacher, and the Tav-tc-kiug. which
/ specially represents the notions Of the
/ iIlustrious Lao-tze 1t is an interesting
/ fact that the Tae Ping rebeIs of lSG3-Gf,
/ although not protesting to be Jews or
/ Christians. took our Bible for tnrir
/ book, and proclaimed that if their in
4 aurrection succeeded it would be sub
! stitutcd for the writings Of Confucius
/ and Lao-tZe.
The ancient Egyptians had tortv-two
sacred books, III five classes, containing
/ hymns in praise Of the gods, instruc-
tons III morals, religious rites, the
education Of priests and related mat
| tiers.
The Greek and Roman mythology had
no sacred books. unless certain poetical
works may be taken for such
The two Eddas set forth the myth
! ologv Of the Norsemen, or ancient
Scandiuavians. They originated IN
Iceland the poetic or elder Edda com
prising thirty-seven poems Of religious
and heroic history, and the younger or
prose Edda, giving a full synopsis of
the Morse mythology. The term "Edda"
means great grandmother" Both tEose
collections date long after Christ.
This IS a pretty full list Of the books
Of sacred or semi-sacrcd character
known to the world, except the Bible