238 EEV. G. E. WHITE; ON THE SHIA TURKS. 
will be taken at the clay of judgment to the weighing-scales, an 
enormous balance held by the Arch-Angel Gabriel, and those 
containing the good deeds put into one scale, called “ Light,” and 
the bad deeds into the other called “ Darkness.” 
When all this is done, if there should remain a single grain to the 
good on the “ credit ” side, God in His mercy will let the man into 
heaven ; but if the balance be the other way he must go to hell, 
unless God has mercy on him, or the prophets or saints specially 
intercede for him. 
With such a belief as this it is natural that the storage of 
“ Merit ” should become the Mohammedan’s chief consideration in 
life. The recognised methods of acquiring “ Merit ” are five, viz. : 
by prayers, by fasting, by almsgiving, by reciting the Kalima, or 
confession of faith, and by Hajj, i.e., making pilgrimage to the holy 
places, of which the chief is Mecca. These five meritorious acts 
are called “ the Pillars of Religion.” The “ Merit ” acquired by 
these means is thus summed up : — “Prayer carries us half-way to 
God, fasting brings us to the door of His palace, and alms procure 
us admission.” There are, besides, many other methods of acquiring 
“ Merit.” 
This doctrine of self-justification is of course diametrically opposed 
to the Christian doctrine of justification by faith. 
It would be interesting to know whether the Shia Turk practises 
this system of accumulating “ Merit ” to the same extent as does 
the orthodox Mohammedan. 
Professor Langhorne Orchard. — The apparent divergence (on 
one or two points) of the last speaker from the author of the paper 
may, I think, be accounted for by the fact that the paper concerns 
itself with the Shia Turks only, not with the Shias generally. 
That their religion is a corrupted form of Christianity seems 
shown by such features as their use of the sign of the Cross, their 
observance of what is held to represent the Lord’s Supper, and 
their great reverence for the Lord Jesus Himself. These circum- 
stances, taken together, have a cumulative force. 
By the Shia intercessory system we are reminded that holiness 
and sin cannot blend ; hence, for communion between God and 
man, there must be an intercessor, a daysman. We are also 
reminded that, as man departs further from God, he multiplies the 
number of intercessors. 
