BOER PIETY.
THE Christianity of few Englishmen contents their religious instructors; but, nevertheless, Englishmen as a body have advanced so far on the Christian path that they hardly comprehend piety like that of the Boers. Finding that they are ready at all times to declare themselves servants of the Lord, and specially favoured and protected by God, yet are canning persons with greedy appetites, without reverence for truth, and as regards their black dependants exceedingly cruel, the English are ready to declare them offhand to be mere hypocrites of an offensive type. That is, however, entirely erroneous. Hypocrisy is not a common offence with brave men, and though it has at particular times infected special classes, there probably never was an entire nation of hypocrites. What, indeed, have they to gain by acting when all think alike? The Boers are just like ancient Jews or modern Mahommedans, people who not only sincerely believe that God governs, and are ready at all times to acknowledge His absolute sovereignty, but have persuaded themselves that the Deity is in some special sense permanently on their side, that He watches over them in preference to the remainder of humanity. The Jews believed that He was Lord of their tribe, and to this hour speak of the Lord God of Israel, Isaac; and Jacob as if He were not the Creator and preserver of all men, but only of one family of men; and the Massalmans hold Him to be Lord of the Faithful and of them alone. That faith is in no way feigned. It is absolutely sincere—being supported by a kind of pride curiously akin in its depth and persistency to the pride of pedigree—and in a majority of cases will stand almost any test, even that of immediate death; but it is only a creed like the English belief that it is right to turn the other cheek, and has very little influence on conduct. The Boer believes firmly in the Old Testament without being merciful to his servants, though that particular kind of mercy is inculcated with imperative distinctness, and in the New without an idea that he is bound to make of the heathen converts, and to treat all men, if not all animals also, as equally creatures of the Lord for whom, if they are in any way in his hand, he will have to render a strict account. He is, in short, a believer who thinks that belief of itself suffices,—one of a class who, we may suspect, were numerous among the earliest con- verts, and were therefore taught that faith without works is dead.
That belief of this sort greatly raises the men who possess it above the heathen who are without it seems certain. It gives them trust and confidence in a higher Power, which, though often unreasonable and sometimes even deluding, strengthens the character, and compels them to submit to something nobler than their own wills. They are free of the degrading theory of materialism, they have an ideal, however imperfect, and they have a confidence in something which is not their own strength alone. With some even there is a power of development, of rising into a life which is entirely higher, but we fear that this is limited to a few in whom a graciousness of nature is innate. The probability is that our own Puritans, if triumphant for generations, would not have developed into a really Christian people ; the Jews rejected Christ, and just before the fall of Jerusalem displayed marked signs of a tendency to ferocity ; while the first objection to Mahom- medanism is that it ossifies the heart, and what is much more striking, the intelligence. Teaching if it differs from that of Mahommed seems never to reach the mind of a true Ainssul- man, but to be repelled by a sort of steel skin which nothing will pierce but a shell in the shape of misfortune. No argument will persuade even a good Mussulman that slavery is wrong, though Mahommed himself seems from his final sermon to have had a glimmering per- ception of that truth, or that all men can possibly be in an equal degree the care of God. Words to that effect have absolutely no meaning for his ears. We fancy that the average Boer is very nearly in that state of mind, which is far removed indeed from what Englishmen understand by piety. H' is really "God-fearing," as he is so often called, but it is as a Mussulman is "God-fearing and "pious," as the men were pions who instigated the stoning of Stephen. He has a strong faith, that is all, and its results, at times excellent, are at times almost or quite evil. One can hardly conceive of a type of Christianity less like that which Christ intended to create than that of General Cronje, though he did not persecute, or of Mr. Kruger, though he intends to use his unscrupulous craft for the benefit of his people, as he under- stands their benefit, as well as for his own.
There is an idea very prevalent in this country that faith of the kind we are describing, sincere faith, though sterile in good works, produces a rare and exceptional kind of courage which makes those who possess it specially difficult to subdue. We suppose it does up to a point, especially while victory accompanies those of the faith, but the idea is not quite so certain as it looks. It is scarcely proved as yet that a timid race has become brave through embracing Mabommedanism. The Arabs were brave long before Mahommed, and the Persians are not so brave as they were when they followed Cyrus. The Jews, though far from being the cowardly people their enemies describe, have since the Dispersion shown rather a wonderful tenacity or power of endurance than active courage; and the courage of all Mussalmans has limits, or they would have conquered the world. The intensity of the faith which possesses Mahommedans sometimes produces two odd checks upon their valour. One, very acceptable to the timid, is that as God can give the victory to Islam, and will give it in his own good time, it is not necessary for any particular Mnstapha to stand to be shattered by a shell. He may run away, and still the purpose of the All-Powerful will be equally accomplished. And another check, really and strongly operative, is that as God alone gives victory, when it is refused it is evident that He does not mean them to have it, and they may as well submit peaceably, waiting a day which may be very remote, though it must come. That must be, and indeed is, the faith of the millions of Mussulmans who in India, in Russia, and in Austria make excellent taxpaying subjects, upon the whole quite as quiescent as any of their neighbours, and we do not exactly see why it should not be the faith of the Boers also. There is no doubt of their courage, for they are Dutchmen, which has probably as much to do with it as their special religions ideas; but very brave men enbmit to necessity once manifested very calmly. Even the Puritan soldiers of the Commonwealth could not stand up against the cry of the whole nation for the Restoration, and once dispersed became especially obedient and law- abiding citizens. We can see no clear reason why the Boers, when once the great decree has visibly gone against them, should not follow that example. Of coarse, if their creed were interfered with they would fight again, as would the Mussulmans of India or of Russia, whatever the hazard or the consequences ; but if that impossible offence is avoided we see no evidence that they can never be quiescent. They may be critical or discontented, or even suffer from a sense of humiliation, but we see nothing in their creed or their piety to tempt them to rise in insurrection. Mr. Kruger appealed directly to their faith at Osfontein, but though they regarded his exhortations as quite true, they—like their Mussulman rivals in depth of conviction—drew a distinction between unswerving faith and the obligation to wait and fight till cavalry had cut off their retreat. Doppers might have died as the Mandiste did at Omdurman, bat then the majority are not Doppers.
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