Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/252

 CHAPTER X.

WHAT THE VARIOUS FAITHS HAD TO SAY OF RELIGION IN ITS RELATION TO MORALS.

The Parsee faith, set forth on the third-day by J. J. Modi, gives as a definition of morality, " Purity is the best thing for man after birth." It means by purity righteousness of conduct and life. It makes such purity or righteousness identical with piety, which is not sentiment toward, but practical obeying of, the commands of Deity. To give a short definition of piety it says that " The preservation of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is piety." The promise of a pious and moral life here and of safe passage through the gates of heaven is in practice according to this three-fold rule, "Think of nothing but the truth, speak of nothing but the truth, and do nothing but what is proper." Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds alone will be our intercessors and open to us the gates of Paradise. By these we practice honesty, charity, and truthfulness, and are considered to walk in the path of God. The sacred fire of the Parsees, prepared by ways supposed to get it in an essentially pure form, is carefully and elaborately represented as a symbol, under various aspects, of piety, purity, charity, humility, and brotherhood.

The Jewish code of ethics was dealt with in a fourth-day paper by Rabbi Pereira Mendes. It commanded perfection like that of God, laid down the golden rule of equal love to all men, enjoined tenderness *to the brute creation, kindness to servants, equality of aliens, justice to the employed, righteous- ness in all conduct and faithfulness in every relation of life. In a fifth -day paper Dr. George Washburn remarked on the ethics of Mohammedanism, that the Moslem code of morals is much nearer the Christian than is generally supposed on either side ; that the code is really more Jewish than Christian ; that 224