behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit]
upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by
this means a certainty of salvation is attained."

"By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this
great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the
Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect
of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when
there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in
consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all
disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast,
who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and
Death]."--Renny[=o] of the Shin sect, 1473.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God."--John.

"The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning."--James.


CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE

The Western Paradise.


We cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at all,
Buddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. Suffice
it to say that the J[=o]-d[=o] Shu, or Sect of the Pure Land, was the
first of the many denominations in Buddhism which definitely and clearly