“‘Ask me not,’ answered Buddha.  But the heretic pressed him, and entreated him to answer; then Buddha said, ’Verily this is the skull of one of my disciples, who forsook the lusts of the flesh.’

“Then the heretic wondered, and said—­

“’Of a truth, this is a thing the like of which no man has yet seen.  Here am I, who know the manner of the life and of the death even of the ants that creep.  Verily, I thought that no thing could escape my ken; yet here lies one of your disciples, than whom there lives no nobler thing, and I am at fault.  From this day forth I will enter your sect, praying only that I may receive your teaching.’

“Thus did this learned heretic become a disciple of Buddha.  If such an one as he was converted, how much the more should after-ages of ordinary men feel that it is through.  Buddha alone that they can hope to overcome the sinful lusts of the flesh!  These lusts are the desires which agitate our hearts:  if we are free from these desires, our hearts will be bright and pure, and there is nothing, save the teaching of Buddha, which can ensure us this freedom.  Following the commands of Buddha, and delivered by him from our desires, we may pass our lives in peace and happiness.”

“Nammiyo! nammiyo!” with triumphant exultation.

“In the sacred books we read of conversion from a state of sin to a state of salvation.  Now this salvation is not a million miles removed from us; nor need we die and be born again into another world in order to reach it.  He who lays aside his carnal lusts and affections, at once and of a certainty becomes equal to Buddha.  When we recite the prayer Na Mu Miyo Ho Ren Go Kiyo, we are praying to enter this state of peace and happiness.  By what instruction, other than that of Nichiren, the holy founder of this sect, can we expect to attain this end?  If we do attain it, there will be no difference between our state and that of Buddha and of Nichiren.  With this view we have learnt from the pious founder of our sect that we must continually and thankfully repeat the prayer Na Mu Miyo Ho Ren Go Kiyo, turning our hearts away from lies, and embracing the truth.”

Such were the heads of the sermon as they were taken down by my scribe.  At its conclusion, the priest, looking about him smiling, as if the solemn truths he had been inculcating were nothing but a very good joke, was greeted by long and loud cries of “Nammiyo! nammiyo!” by all the congregation.  Then the lay clerk sat himself down again by the hanging drum; and the service ended as it had begun, by prayer in chorus, during which the priest retired, the sacred book being carried out before him by his acolyte.

Although occasionally, as in the above instance, sermons are delivered as part of a service on special days of the month, they are more frequently preached in courses, the delivery occupying about a fortnight, during which two sermons are given each day.  Frequently the preachers are itinerant priests, who go about the towns and villages lecturing in the main hall of some temple or in the guest-room of the resident priest.