mercy of a Redeemer, to humble himself in sackcloth and ashes, to base his hope
on the infinite love of GOD made man, on the glorious sacrifice of the Cross; his
soul passed straight to Paradise, as an arrow flies towards its mark. In the
Khordah Avesta we can follow the stages of its journey:—On the first night after
death the soul dwelt near the head of the inanimate body it had just deserted, and
sat there praying, rejoicing in as much joy as is vouchsafed to the whole living
world. And so did it dwell on the second night, praying. And so did it dwell on
the third night, praying. But when the third night verged upon dawn, the soul of
the pure man went forward. A wind, sweeter than all other winds, blew to meet it
from the south. And in that wind came to embrace the pilgrim his own law,
under the figure of a maiden beautiful and shining, fair as the fairest of created
beings. The pilgrim then took the first step in his celestial progress, and arrived
in the paradise Hamata; he took the second, and reached the paradise Hûkhta; he
took the third, and arrived at the paradise Hvarsta. The beatified wanderer made
yet another step, and gained the presence of the Eternal Light. There was he
addressed by an already beatified soul: “How art thou, O pure deceased, who
hast come from the perishable world hither to the imperishable?” Ahura-Mazda
here interrupted: “Ask him not, for he has come on the fearful trembling way,
the separation of soul and body. Bring him hither of the food of the full fatness,
that is, of the filling food for those who think, speak, and do good, for the pure
after death.”
A recent writer says of this notion of a progressive advance to the “Eternal
Light,” of the welcome received from the blessed, and from the gentle words of
Ahura-Mazda himself; and of the conducting angel who represents the man’s
own earthly faith and life, (like Bunyan’s Mr. Good-Conscience meeting old
Honest beside the River of Death,) “all these,” he says, “are beautiful thoughts.”
Surely fanciful, rather than beautiful; and better adapted to amuse religious
sentimentalists than to satisfy healthy and earnest believers. The obvious
reference to the three days and nights spent by our LORD “in prison” appears to
indicate that this is a comparatively modern portion of the Zendavesta, founded
upon some vague knowledge of the mystery of the Resurrection.
While the pure soul proceeded, as we have seen, by three stages or gradations to
the Paradise of Light and Sweetness, the evil and unclean soul, on the other
hand, descended, also by three stages, to the terrors of Douzakh, the dark abode
of Ahriman and the Devs. There it suffered according to its sinfulness until the
general day of Resurrection. At that great epoch these nights of indescribable
woe will be undergone by all who have not expiated their earthly offences; woe