past, and if we are in all things to commit ourselves to the power of Amida, in what light are we to look upon medical aid (yobo, #) in case of sickness? There were "Christian Scientists" in Buddhism long before the formal advent of Christianity into Japan, and Rennyo Shonin discussed the question in the fifteenth century. Jisetsu to-rai (#), "his hour has come," was the cant phrase used by these "peculiar people," when their friends were stricken with sickness. The phrase in their lips was intended as a justification for not summoning the doctor. "Jisetsu to-rai, indeed!" exclaims Rennyo. "If you have taken every possible means to save your friend's life, and all has been in vain, then you may say Jisetsu to-rai, but not otherwise." Our hour must come of itself: it must not be invited or dragged on by our own carelessness ( section 90).

The next paragraph ( section 91) discusses the term aku-nin-sho-ki, to which I have already had occasion to refer. The term means 'a bad man with a straight or correct faith.' It apparently came into use in the early days of Shinshuism, was early misunderstood, and led to one of the most serious troubles that the sect has experienced. It was interpreted to mean that a man might be as bad as he pleased, provided that he had a correct faith in the mercies of Amida, and this misinterpretation was very soon used as a "cloke of maliciousness."

Our author is at pains to explain the true meaning. The vast proportion of men, he tells us, are aku-nin "evil men" (are we not taught to call ourselves miserable sinners?), but there are none so evil that they may not be saved by obedience to

the teachings of the "true faith" or sho-ki. The phrase therefore, properly considered, is the glory, and not the shame, of the Shinshu. It means that the Shinshu has come to preach a Gospel to the outcast, the criminal, the evil liver. It has come to call "sinners to repentance." And this, we may notice, is an honour which it shares with the Christian Gospel. [**]

Footnotes

^131:* Newman, Parochial Sermons. Vol. VII. p. 205.

^133:* The phrase Jisetsutorai is especially interesting for the light it throws on the historical connection between the Shinshu and Manichaeism. See Appendix II.