Page:The Psychology of Jingoism.djvu/68
Christianity of the China Consul, until we have not many steps to take to reach the Christianity of the sleek gentleman in Tennyson's Sea Dreams –
Who, never naming God except for gain,
So never took that useful name in vain;
Made Him his catspaw, and the Cross his tool,
And Christ the bait to trap his dupe and fool.
Remembering that the Boers are also owners of a tribal God and a particular Providence, to which they have adhered with more vigour and consistency than we, it seems only reasonable to impute some of the fervour which our priests and politicians are displaying to the competitive spirit which operates more powerfully just now when we can make such a good use of God for our special national ends. To displace the 'pious Boer' in the good books of the Almighty, to outbid him by offers of active missionary work, to display the superior attractions of our up-to-date New-Testament Christianity as compared with the narrow, antiquated, Old-Testament religion of the Boers, has been the task of innumerable pulpiteers during the last eighteen months. The boldest attack in this effort to dislodge the Boer from the seat of Divine favour has not been a frontal one: it has consisted in a charge of hypocrisy against