THE RELIGIOUS FERVOR OF THE BOERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 48, 29 November 1900, Page 5

THE RELIGIOUS FERVOR OF THE BOERS.

Mr. Arthuß Lynch, ' Colonel of the Second Irish Brigade in the Transvaal/ gives the Revue de Paris an account of his experiences. Speaking rather ironically of the religion of the Boers, he mentions that at a council of war at Glencoe General Joubert began with a very long prayer, which depicted the situation in the gloomiest colors, thus throwing a wet blanket on his officers, and then Mr. Kruger, on hearing an account of an engagement by General Botha, exolaimed : ' Ah, yes, and you doubtless remember that I then Bent you ■uch and such a psalm, which must have given your men great courage.' ' Certainly,' replied Botha, who at heart scoffed at the psalm, and must have been amused at the idea of suspending his operations in order to read the psalm to his burghers. Colonel Lynch adds : < At times the religious fervor amounted to hallucination. A belief was spread that an angel in white robes, on a splendid white horse, was on great occasions on the right wing of the Boers. This was frequently repeated among those otherwise very intelligent men, and many explanations of it were given. The most popular one was that Christ had resolved to punish the English on account of their immorality. But this religious sentiment does not supply the place of discipline. 111-fortune makes deroair succeed to senseless confidence, for it seems a judgment of God against His people. The same pious people explained reverses by the ' Babylonish tendency of the Boers,' a by no means commonplace explanation,'