BURNS’ RELIGION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9409, 1 April 1909, Page 6

BURNS’ RELIGION.

The Rev. O. J. Street, 31. A., preaching at Sheffieldon the anniversary of the Scottish bard’s birth; . asid it was just 150 years ago "since the birth of Burns, and it was fitting to commemorate the man who more than any other had influenced the thought and life of Scotland, and, indeed, left his impress jop the English-speaking world. -His influence as a poet was due largely to his Scottish patriotism and rough homespun Doric to begin with, and still more to his sympathy and insight into human nature. He belonged to the world, and; like the Bible;-was human through and through. But it was not of Burns’ poetry that he wished to speak so much as of his religion. Prejudiced half-thinkers might suppose he had none. It only showed they not read and studied his writings, or that their souls were too narrow. It was true he was a bitter opponent of cant and hypocrisy. He saw too much of it in the Ayrshire churches. ‘‘Holy Willie’s Prayer” had an original in an elder of the kirk'near by. His satire of hypocrisy and' formalism was scotching. Then his condemnation of the Oalvinistio orthodoxy of his time was severe and thorough enough. The orthodoxy of those days Was of gruesome and ghastly sort, and repelled the simple soul of Burns as it had. driven into the wilderness of doubt and despair many an honest religious thinker. Distaste lor Calvinism was hereditary in Burns. His father, whose memory he has reverently perpetuated as the hero of ‘The Cottar’s Saturday Night,’ prepared a manual of religion for his obildern, in which strong condemnation was pronounced on Calvinism with its awfni doctrine of unconditional election and repro- , batioh , and the way of salvation was maintained to be in conscientious endeavour to obey God’s will and sincere repentance for falling short of it. Robert Borns bad killed Calvinism and zevolntionised Scottish religions thought, and this was an honourable testimony £to ;his influence. Burns was hot only no opponent of real religion bat an ardent advocate of it. He repudiated the travesties of it that went under its name, bat he loved the genuine spirit of devotion. The heart of the man was Strand, though his nature was ill-regulated. Many passages of verse and prose were quoted by way of testimony to the strong hold which religion had on the poet. Indeed his poetry breathed the tzne spirit of religion when you brushed aside the occasionally sensual and disfignring'portions of it—those portions which we naturally felt to be unworthy of bis genius and bis real spirit. And Burns' religion was theirs of Upper Obapel. It was a religion in accordance with the Inner testimony of the son!. He was an unconscious Unitarian. He believed firmly in one God. who was perfect Dove, revealing Himself to the hearts of His children. He had reverence and honour for Jesus, and welcomed and accepted His gospel of the dignity and immortality of life and of the brotherhood and equality of humanity. Of this gospel Bnrns himself was an earnest preacher. What more telling sermon was ever preached than ‘A man’s a man for a’ that’? As Lord Rosebery said. Burns had ‘become the obampion and patron saint of democracy. He bears aloft the banner of the essential equality of man. ’ He was convinced that the merit of any man 'lay in bis character and not in bis possessions. And if it be ;said that, judged by this text, Bnrns came ont bat poorly, let them learn from bis address ‘To the Unco Quid or the Rigidly Righteous.’— ‘‘Then gently scan yonr brother man Still gentler sister woman; Tbo’ they may gang a kennin wrang. To step aside is human. One point must still ba greatly dark. The moving why they do it. And just as tamely can ye mark How far perhaps they rue it. Who madeftbe heart, ’tis He alone Decidedly can try us; He knows each chord, its various tone, Each spring, its various bias. Then at the balance let’s be mnte; We never can adjust it; What’s done‘we partly may compute, Bac know not what’s resisted.” Certainly Burns’s character was not all that it might have been. Whose was? But bis sins were grossly exaggerated. God would have mercy where temptation was great, and He would be a just judge, however harsh the human world might be. It was bad companionship that harmed the young poet.