living as hermits or monks, separately or in communities, under certain definite rules about food, clothing, celibacy, etc.

It may appear hardly necessary that we should say anything more to show that all these methods are insufficient to secure forgiveness and salvation, because we have already explained the really heinous nature of sin and what is necessary for its remission and removal. But as some of our honoured readers may still feel unconvinced that these outward observances are all in vain, we proceed to explain this briefly.

The belief of the heathen that sin is forgiven and that salvation is obtained through the first and second class of methods mentioned above arises from the fact that they do not know the true and holy God, and that on this account the heinousness of sin is not evident to them. Although many of the heathen are well acquainted with worldly learning and are very intellectual, like the Brahmans and the Parsis, the Chinese and the Japanese, yet they have failed to recognize that sin first of all springs up in a man's heart, as water in a fountain, and that the essence of sin is man's inward opposition to God's holy will, from which opposition arise pride, evil desires and passions, wicked thoughts and inclinations. These evil desires are themselves sins, even if not carried into action. On the other hand the heathen in general deceive themselves by fancying that sin is an

outward matter, that it springs from man's body. Hence they think that sin can be done away with by means of outward observances, such as washings, oblations, pilgrimages, visiting sacred shrines, and that in this way they can obtain salvation. The fact is that it is impossible that an unclean heart should be made clean by such means as these, or that a man should in this way be cleansed from evil passions, or that in such a way his will should be brought into harmony with the will of God. For on consideration every thoughtful man will perceive that a man's inner wickedness cannot be changed into goodness by reciting a few forms of prayer, or by fasting, or by washing or cleansing of the hands and feet, or by bathing the whole body, or by making a pilgrimage to some sacred shrine. On the contrary, since these external things cannot in any manner affect the spirit or the heart, an evildoer or a man of evil mind is just the same in character after them as he was before. It is also evident that an impure and sin-defiled man, as long as he remains such, will never be acceptable to God the holy one, nor will he gain salvation and eternal happiness. And how is it possible that the acts which we have mentioned should, in the sight of the just and holy God, be accounted as a satisfaction and an atonement for those innumerable sins which a man has committed during his whole life? And, since by such means as these any trespass and offence which