A Parsee believes in one God, to whom he addresses his prayers. His morality is comprised in these words--pure thoughts, pure words, pure deeds.--F. MAX MÜLLER. Modern Parsees decidedly object to being called fire-worshipers, and declare the designation untrue. They are undoubtedly taught from their youth up to turn their face to some light-giving object while engaged in worshiping God, and they certainly regard the fire as an emblem of the power of God. Yet they declare that they never worship these, neither they nor their fathers. The name has been given them from most ancient times; and they confess that if there is not a national worship of the sun and fire, there is yet an indescribable awe which every Parsee feels toward these objects. The Parsees are the only Eastern people who totally abstain from smoking tobacco. They do not even like to blow out a candle. In many other respects, this is a singular people, whose religious faith we are about to describe. But, first, let us turn to its history. [Illustration: A PARSEE MERCHANT OF BOMBAY.] To-day only about one one-hundredth part of the whole human race are Parsees; but there have been times when this system bade fair to become the prevalent religion of the world. It is one of the oldest of reformed religions. It grew up upon the idolatrous worship of the ancient Assyrian empire. In the days of Cyrus the Great this was the State religion of Persia. Had Greece fallen before him, and been absorbed into his vast empire, as had Assyria, Babylon and Egypt, the Grecian religion would have yielded a place to the Parsee’s faith. Parseeism was possessed of great strength, and resisted all attacks upon its life until a thousand years since, when the Arabians brought Mohammedanism into the land of Persia. From that time it has been a curiosity to historians, and its followers are rapidly dwindling away; and ere long the fires of its faith will die out, and it will become one of the religions of the past. ZOROASTER, THE PROPHET OF ORMAZD. This system is called generally by either one of three names--Parseeism, Fire-worship or Zoroasteranism. It is sometimes called the doctrine of the Magi. Its usual name is derived from him who was the most celebrated man in the history of this faith. Zoroaster is sometimes called the son of Ormazd. He probably lived about 1,200 years before Christ. The exact date cannot be ascertained. It is certain that it was in very early times, because he and his religious reform are referred to in the Vedas, whose great antiquity has been proven. His writings stand at the head of the sacred Parsee books, just as Moses’ writings stand at the beginning of our Bible. It took hundreds of years for the sacred Parsee books to grow, and they were completed in 400 B.C. Pliny compares Moses and Zoroaster as founders of great religions. He certainly was one of the earliest and greatest of religious reformers.