Contrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the attainment of salvation solely through the aid of Amida, or Another, the Nichirenites insist that it is necessary for man to work out his own salvation, by observing the law, by self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings vouchsafed to the members of this elect and orthodox sect and by constant prayer.  They consider themselves as in the only true church, and their succession to the priesthood, the only valid one.  The strict Nichiren churchmen will not have the Shint[=o] gods in their household shrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects.  The Nichirenites are also very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other creeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha.  The people of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal possession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding business of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes, badgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are generally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence.  The phenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of hysteria and hypnotism.

This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets, lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are prominent features in their temples and revival meetings.  In one sense it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what strikes the eye and ear.  The Nichirenites have been well called the Ranters of Buddhism.  Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and reduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are familiar in our own country.  They are the most sectarian of all sects.  Their vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian sectarians in their fiercest controversies.  “A thousand years in the lowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the Nichirenites for the priests of all other sects.”  When the Parliament of Religions was called in Chicago, the successors of Nichiren, with their characteristic high-church modesty, promptly sent letters to America, warning the world against all other Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those coming to speak in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines of Buddha.

Doctrinal Culmination.

When the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic pantheism had been able to include within its great receiver and processes of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the circle of doctrine was complete.  K[=o]b[=o]’s leaven had now every possible lump in which to do its work.  All grades of men in Japan, from the most devout and intellectual to the most ranting and fanatical, could choose their sect.  Yet it may be that Buddhism