ions given to the term "Shinto" by the native
scholars. Making some quotations from the Chinese classics, he went on
to say for himself:

"I cannot accept that which is popularly called Shinto.... I do not
profess to understand the profound reason of the deities, but in
outline this is my idea: The Doctrine of the Mean speaks of the
'virtue of the Gods' and Shu-shi explains this word 'virtue' to mean
the 'heart and its revelation.' Its meaning is thus stated in the
Saden: 'God is pure intelligence and justice.' Now all know that God
is just, but do not know that he is intelligent. But there is no such
intelligence elsewhere as God's. Man hears by the ear and where the
ear is not he hears not ...; man sees with his eyes, and where they
are not he sees not ...; with his heart man thinks and the swiftest
thought takes time. But God uses neither ear nor eye, nor does he pass
over in thought. Directly he feels, and directly does he respond....
Is not this the divinity of Heaven and Earth? So the Doctrine of the
Mean says: 'Looked for it cannot be seen, listened to it cannot be
heard. It enters into all things. There is nothing without it.' ...
'Everywhere, everywhere, on the right and on the left.' This is the
revealing of God, the truth not to be concealed. Think not that God is
distant, but seek him in the heart, for the heart is the House of God.
Where there is no obstacle of lust, there is communion of one spirit
with the God of Heaven and Earth.... And now for the application.
Examine yourselves, make the truth of the heart the foundation,
increase in learning and at last you will attain. Then will you know
the truth of what I speak" (pp. 50-52).

In the above passage Dr. Knox has translated the term "Shin," the
Chinese ideograph for the Japanese word "Kami," by the English
singular, God. This lends to the passage a fullness of monotheistic
expression which the original hardly, if at all, justifies. The
originals are indefinite as to number and might with equal truth be
translated "gods," as Dr. Knox suggests himself in a footnote.

These and similar passages are of great interest to the student of
Japanese religious development. They should be made much of by
Christian preachers and missionaries. Such writers and thinkers as
Muro evidently was might not improperly be called the pre-Christian
Christians of Japan. They prepared the way for the coming of more
light on these subjects. Japanese Christian apologists shoul