Of all this the Shinshu knows nothing. "We hold," says the Shinshu Hyakuwa ( section 88) "that the happiness or the reverse of a man's life, his honour or his shame, is entirely and solely the inevitable result of a Man's own actions, and of his own merits in the past or in the present life, and that no prayer or incantation is of avail to change a man's temporal lot until all the law of Karma has been fulfilled. We teach that when a man understands where the true cause of misfortune is to be found, and sets himself resolutely to work to amend his life, and to strengthen that resolution which can alone give him the victory, then the misfortune which clouds his life will of itself disappear. Further, if a calamity be so great that it seems to require a charm or incantation to drive it away, we must remember that the Great Vow of Amida is more powerful than any incantation or charm, and we cannot possibly do better

than cast our care upon Amida and go quietly on with our lives."

So the Shinshuist discards all spells and incantations, wears no amulets or charms, and even abstains from all prayers which are not included in the term mina Butsuriki ni makaseru (lit. to commit all to the power of the Buddha), which I have ventured to translate by the term, "casting all our care upon Him."

And what a vast province of the Kingdom of Prayer is included in the phrase mina Butsu-riki ni makaseru! "A man who is religious," says Newman, "is religious, morning, noon, and night; his religion is a certain character, a mould in which his thoughts, words, and actions are cast, all forming parts of one and the sane whole. He sees God in all things; every course of action he directs towards those spiritual objects which God has revealed to him; every occurrence of the day, every person met with, all news which he hears; he measures by the standard of God's will ... To be religious is, in other words, to have the habit of prayer, or to pray always ... we place God's presence and will before us, and so consistently act with a reference to Him, that all that we do becomes one body and course of obedience." [**] Substitute the Name Amida for God, and you have what the Amidaist understands, and (as far as his lights go) practises, by the term mina Butsuriki-ni makaseru.

But if prosperity and adversity, sickness and health, are Karma of our own actions in the