SCOTCH! HOTCH! POTCH!

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 16, 2 July 1920, Page 10

SCOTCH! HOTCH! POTCH!

(Contributed by the "Groper.")

Tlobcrt Burns was quiek to lash with ryhme the scheming hypocrite. Holy iWillie's Prayer is a fair sample of' the pbet's ability in this regard. HOLY WILLIE'S PRAYER. 0 thou, wha in the heavens dost dwcll, Wha, as it pleases best thyself', Sends ane to heaven,and ten to hell, A' for tliy glory, s And no for ony gude or ill They've done afore thee! 1 bless and praise tby matchless might When thousands thou hast left in night, That I am here afore thy sight, For gifts and grace, AJburnin' and a shinin' light To a' this place. What was I, or my generation, That I should get sic exaltation, I wha deserve sic just damnation, For broken laws, Five thousand years 'fore my creation, Thro' Adam's cause. When frae my mither's womb I fell, Thou might hae plung°i me in hell, To gnash my gums, to w.eep and wail, In burnin' lake, Whar damned devils roar and yell, Chain'd to a stake. Yet I am here a chosen sampley To show thy grace is great and ample; I'm here a pillar in thy temple, Strohg as a rock,1 A guide, a buckler, an example, To a! thy iiock. But yet, 0 Lord ! Confess I must, At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust; And sometimes,, too, wi' wardly trust, Vile self gets in; .But thou r,emembers we are dust, Defil'd in sin. Maybe thou lets this fleshly thorn, Beset thy servant e'en and mom, Best he owre high and proud should turn 'Cause. he's sae gifted ; If sae, thy han' maun e'en he^borne, Until thou lift it. Lord, bless tliy chosen in this place, For here thou hast a chosen race : But God confound their stubborn face, And blast their name, Wha bring thy elders to disgrace And public shame. Lord,. mind Gawn Hamilton's deserts, He drinks, and swears and plays at carts Yet hae sae mony takin' arts, Wi' grit and sma, Frae God's ain priests the people's hearts He steals awa. An' whan we chasten'd him thereforet, Tiiou kens how he bred sic a splore, As set the warld in a roar 0' laughin' at us; — Curse i hou his basket and his store, Kail and potatoes. Lord, hear my eamest cry and pray'r, Against the presbyt'ry of Ayr ; - ■ Thy strong right hand, Lord, mak it bare Upo" their head's, Lord weight it down, and dinna spare, For their misdeeds. O Lord my God, that glib-tongu'd Aiken My very heart and saul are quakin,' To think how We stood groanin,' shakin' And swat wi' dread, While Auld wi' h'ingin lips gaed sneakin, And hung his head. Lord, in the day of vengeance try him, Lord, visit them wha did employ him, And pass not in thy mercy by 'em, Nor hear their pray'r ; But for thy people's sake destroy 'em, And dinna spare. But, Lord, remember me and mine, Wi" mercies temp'ral and divine, That I for gear and grace may shine, Excell'd by name, And a' th'e glory shall be thine, Amen, Amen ! — Robert Burns. It is romarkable that the average churchjman should, more than any other, resent critieism. Fair criticism has a function to perform in church as well as state. We jiave a habit of judging by established standards, and the church standard is just about the most clearly defined thing taider heaven. "The Groper" reserves right to have a fair tilt at anything ^rom Methodist and Presbyterian parsons $» His Holiness the Pope. Last week there appeared a letter from "Constant Subscriber" complaining of a eeferenc© made to the Methodist Church,

We have no wish to "malign" any agency tor good, much Iess the largest church in Nonconformity. But "G.S." is clearly barking up the "wrong tree. He has read Pto tha par than by rai r in- ? ---rvt, fr.--p.d Hiors. V?o..-ra 1 of "stabbing in the dark," of "belittling ?. Christian church," of being "unfair. . . ignoranfc, . . bigoted." Suppose we plead guiliy and confess our wrong — What then ? Will "C.S." forgive? Not if we know a man by the stuff he w rites ! Let asto it then. There is not-hing to w-'hdraw. Mv.ch might be added. "C.S." asked for proof. He shall have it— by comparison. We shall avoid personalities. It appears to us that the ChristiaiP church was founded on what one might term "doyri. in excelcis" — her Master's, "I am the "*ay." That brainy and courageous . atom, St. Paui, overthrew the Athenian philosophy after . a two months' bout on. Mars" Hill and carried the banher of tlie cross. to the court of the Caesars. His was a cyclonic force direetcd by a mind "fully f»rsuaded." Paul's stock phra=e was, "I know." Vres'ey rr'.iiH and revolutionised a decadent England with the clarion note of positivism. This is the finding of the court of profane history. We opine that this perverse generation — - the bugbear of parsons — the sorrow of saints — could be arrested by the voice of a "v;hb hogpjer." It is always a black day for C .e people when the leaders "dor't know" what they think. It's a car o of blind men and ditches. That black day is to-day and the cardinal lack of "modernist" preachei's is that they "don't know." The pulpit is the last place on earth for "dcn't knows." This "reverend r-gno iiclsin' is the oatgrowt'.i of higher critis'V.v. ' made in Germany," and palated in Engl ird. So here we are again "C.S." with cmpty chnrches and the reason. Methodism sufters no more than the rest. It will be a bad day for the world when the Aory of the Peerless One loses its appe?J. Suppose it wero a myth, far better prp; . wrong thing strongly than the stuff one so often hears : — "And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost, * Is the unlit lamp, the ungii-t loin, Though the end in sight was a vice, 1 say." — Robt. Browning (not Burns).