VI. 
Sacred Shrines, and their Devotees. 
It will be interesting to note, at greater length, the most 
remarkable sacred shrines and temples of the Japanese. 
These have been frequently alluded to in the preceding 
pages ; but in this chapter, it will be better for the reader 
to consider them more at length, in order to understand the 
great need which exists — in spite of all the civilization and 
learning hitherto attained by this remarkable people — for 
the light of the Gospel. They walk as it were in moral twi- 
light. They see but partially and indistinctly — through the 
mists and vapours of idolatry and semi-enlightenment — the 
truth in regard to the future. In some favoured spots the 
Gospel is taught by devoted missionaries, both male and 
female ; but over great part of the land intense darkness 
reigns, while even in the most favoured centres of light and 
Gospel teaching, infidelity and scientific doubt have crept 
in, to nullify the newly formed belief of many in Christianity. 
This cold, unsettled, doubting system is known in Japan as 
the " English Philosophy." 
Pure Shintoism, and pure Buddhism, have each their own 
shrines in the land, while in thousands of instances the form 
of worship observed at other shrines is that of Riyobu 
Shtntu ; or, "twofold religious doctrine." This doctrine 
was formed by the union of the Shinto faith and Buddhist 
system ; so that both Shinto and Buddhist temples are now 
