Native Races and the War eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 172 pages of information about Native Races and the War.

Native Races and the War eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 172 pages of information about Native Races and the War.

Yet if the Transvaal teachers and their disciples had read impartially (though even exclusively) the Old Testament Scriptures, they could not have failed to see how grossly they were themselves offending against the divine commands in some vital matters.  I cite, as an example, the following commands, given by Moses to the people, not once only, but repeatedly.  Had these commands been regarded with as keen an appreciation as some others whose teaching seems to have an opposite tendency, it is impossible that the natives should have been treated as they have been by Boer Law, or that Slavery or Serfdom should have existed among them for so many generations.  The following are some of the often-repeated commands and warnings: 

Ex. xii. v 19.—­“One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.”

Num. ix. v 14.—­“If a stranger shall sojourn among you, ... ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.”

Num. xv. v 15.—­“One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generation:  as ye are so shall the stranger be before the Lord.”

Verse 16.—­“One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.”

Lev. xix. v 33.—­“And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.”

Verse 34.—­“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Verse 35.—­“Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measure.”

Although the natives of the Transvaal were the original possessors of the country, they have been reckoned by the Boers as strangers and foreigners among them.  They have treated them as the ancient Jews treated all Gentiles as for ever excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel,—­until in the “fulness of time” they were forced by a great shock and terrible judgments—­to acknowledge, with astonishment, that “God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life,” and that they also had heard the news of the glorious emancipation of all the sons of God throughout the earth.

Not only is the non-payment, but even delay in the payment of wages condemned by the Law of Moses.  Is it possible that Boer theologians, who quote Scripture with so much readiness, have never read the following?

Lev. xix. v 13.—­“Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him:  the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.”

Deut. xxiv. v 14.—­“Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the strangers that are in thy land, within thy gates.”

Verse 15.—­“At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it:  lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.”

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Native Races and the War from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.