Priest and Puritan.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 17 July 1902, Page 2

Priest and Puritan.

The Boers, as is well known, are of Puritan stock and are reputed to hold to their religious beliefs with all the old Puritan tenacity, but they seem to have little of that silly dread of and dislike to Catholic priests which are sometimes displayed by their co-religionists in more civilised communities, so at least it would appear from the testimony of a Catholic missionary in Cape Colony, who gives the following account, quoted in the A ye Maria, of his experiences amongst the Boers : — ' In every house a chapter from the Scriptures is read every evening, with singing and piayer; this not alone on Sundays, but every day alike. This is done whether there are guests present or not. I have very often been asked to read the chapter from the Bible and to offer prayer, which I was naturally always willing to do. On Sunday every family rides to church ; and when the distances are too great, the neighbors within five or ten miles assemble at a farm, chosen beforehand, to hold public worship in common. But every family travels to church at least twice a year, however great the distance may be. The journey often lasts several days, so that the visitors to the church spend a week or longer in their waggons and tents. Boers are Protestands and I am a Roman Catholic priest, but I speak of them just as I found them.'

We have read lately of a Catholic priest in one of the American cities accepting- an invitation to lecture in a Protestant church on the Catholic religion, and of his taking full advantage of the opportunity to do good service for his Church. But the picture of the priest leading the devotions of these old Puritan farmers is still more out of the common, and a still more remarkable illustration of the way in which circumstances conspire to make ' extremes meet.' All the same the picture is a pleasing one, and the experiences described are creditable to a!l concerned.