In a hymn of the Rig-Veda we find the idea that the merits or the pious may benefit their neighbours.[103] According to one of the Pahlavi texts, persons who are wholly unable to perform good works are supposed to be entitled to a share of any supererogatory good works performed by others.[104] The Chinese believe that {97} whole kingdoms are blessed by benevolent spirits for the virtuous conduct of their rulers.[105] Yahveh promised not to destroy Sodom for the sake of ten righteous, provided that so many righteous could be found in the town.[106] The doctrine of vicarious reward or satisfaction through good works is, in fact, more prevalent than the doctrine of vicarious punishment. Jewish theology has a great deal more to say about the acceptance of the merits of the righteous on behalf of the wicked, than about atonement through sacrifice.[107] The Muhammedans, who know nothing of vicarious suffering as a means of expiation, confer merits upon their dead by reciting chapters of the Koran and almsgiving, and some of them allow the pilgrimage to Mecca to be done by proxy.[108] Christian theology itself maintains that salvation depends on the merit of the passion of Christ; and from early times the merits of martyrs and saints were believed to benefit other members of the Church.[109] [Footnote 103: _Rig-Veda_, vii. 35. 4.] [Footnote 104: _Dînâ-î-Maînôg-î Khirad_ xv. 3.] [Footnote 105: de Groot, _Religious System of China_ (vol. iv. book) ii. 435.] [Footnote 106: _Genesis_, xviii. 32.] [Footnote 107: Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 424, n. 1.] [Footnote 108: Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, pp. 247, 248, 532. Sell, _op. cit._ pp. 242, 278, 287, 288, 298. _Cf._ Wallin, _Fórsta Resa från Cairo till Arabiska öknen_, p. 103.] [Footnote 109: Harnack, _History of Dogma_, ii. 133, n. 3.]