the Jews had no writings prior to the time of Ezra or Jeremiah, it
is now believed that many of the doctrines incorporated in their
sacred books were borrowed from Persian, Indian, and Egyptian sources.
Resurrection from the dead, or the resurrection of the body, was for
hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ an established article of
Egyptian and Persian faith, while spiritual regeneration, symbolized by
the outward typification of "being born again," was the beginning of a
new life and an admission to the heavenly state.

In the Khordah Avesta we have the following concerning the doctrine of
the resurrection and that of future rewards and punishments.

"I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the good Mazdaycinian
faith, in the coming of the resurrection and the later body, in the
stepping over the bridge Chinvat, in an invariable recompense of good
deeds and their reward, and of bad deeds and their punishment."

The Zoroastrians, who led the way in the great intellectual and
religious awakening which took place during the intervening years from
700 B.C. to 400 B.C., sought to purify all things by fire and water, the
two principles which had come to be regarded as the original elements,
from which, or by which, all things are produced.

Prior to this time, in Persia, and long afterwards by various other
nations, baptism, a rite performed at puberty, was connected only with
the sexual obligations of the person receiving it, but in the age which
we are considering it became especially a cleansing or regenerating
process, and was the means by which the pious devotee became initiated
into the mysteries of holy living, or by which she or he was "born
again."

As in their religious procedure every act was performed in connection
with symbols, so in the matter of baptism they were not satisfied
with the inner consciousness of regeneration, but must go through
with certain processes which typified the new life upon which they had
entered. According to Wilford, the outward symbolization of the "new
birth" in the East is manifested in the following manner:

"For the purpose of regeneration it is directed to make an image of pure
gold of the female power of nature, either in the shape of a woman or
of a cow. In this statue, the person to be regenerated is inclosed, and
dragged out through the natural channel. As a statue of pure gold and
of proper dimensions would be too expensive, it is sufficient to make an