BOER PIETY.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—In reference to your article on " Boer Piety " in the Spectator of March 24th, may I draw attention to the likeness of the Boers in many respects to the Scottish Covenanters as portrayed in Scott's " Old Mortality "? As we look at the latter through Sir Walter's kindly eyes we see that there was in them real sincerity of religion, in spite of deeds which we rightly reprobate. Their faults seem to have arisen, to a great extent, from the fact that they had no idea of that view of the Bible which recognises degrees of inspiration. Nor did they grasp that it is the history of the gradual development of a type of character of which the Christ life is the ideal for all time (cf. Dean Church's "Discipline of the Christian Character "). Hence, instead of being "disturbed by the imperfect morality of the Old Testament, by the treachery of Jael being commended by Deborah, and by the cursing Psalms ' " (cf. " Old Testament Difficulties," by Bishop Winnington Ingram, p. 18), they regarded these as all parts of one equally inspired book, and as evidence that the spirit there exhibited is in certain cases still justifiable. Is not the same, perhaps, true of our Boer opponents ? If we looked at their religion in this light, realising that their faults, like those of the Covenanters, spring not from hypocrisy but rather from limited intellectual apprehension and wrong views of the Bible, might we not, while humbly thankful for the clearer knowledge we believe ourselves to possess, be more ready to imitate them in what would seem to be a real dependence on a higher power? Here, again, "Old Mortality" has a lesson for us:— "` Pshaw!' said the young Cornet, 'what signifies strong ground when it is only held by a crew of canting, psalm• singing old women? A man may fight never the worse,' retorted Major Allan, 'for honouring both his Bible and Psalter. These fellows will prove as stubborn as steel; I know them of old."—(Clap. 8.)—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. L,
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