The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-08

upon another equally as barren with
his sisters. They could not live and
make their rents. Ruin faced them
but Burns flew to their rescue with
full two-fifths of his money. His
generous nature would have re-
sponded if he had been left penni
less. 1t is by such acts as this one
that we are to Judge the character of
Robert Burns. Without glossing his
errors we still find him noble, low
able, and rich in the wealth of hu
manity that speaks in his poems and
shall speak forever to educate m an in
all the higher things Of life.
His work, we maintain, has done
much to enlarge the spirit Of human
ity-to make men feel the universal
brotherhood of the race and the faith
erhood of God. His spirit was in
tensely Liberal He was pioneer in
teaching liberal doctrines, and had
he lived century later would have
kept the faith of Tennyson, Brown
ing, Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow and
Whittier. Burns had an intense
hatred for the creed of his day. 1t
was the traditional creed. It passed
into Scotland in the time of John
Knox. 1t was the religion of the Pur-
itans, of Cotton Mather and Jonath-
an Edwards. The creed has passed
out, and milder one has taken its
place. Some good things can be said
OF it. 1t impresses men deeply with
the sense of their personal response
bility. 1t made them grave, thought
full and religious. 1t exalted the
Bible, and made it the infallible
pope of Professionalism. 1t appealed
to the Bible for proof of everything
religious and practical. 1t also in
spired men with the most intense love
of liberty the world has ever known.
1t made Cromwell, Hampden and
Milton. 1t laid the foundations of
our present New England, and the
blood of Puritanism courses through
the veins of one-half the people in
America today.
But it had other effects. 1t made
its adherents often unjust, bigoted,
tyrannical. 1t knew no such name as
federation. It banished pleasure and
burned up all things suspected of
vanity. 1t drove Mrs. Hutchinson
and Roger Williams out of Massa-
chusetts, hanged Quakers, and
stoned and hanged people con-
demned for the imaginary crime of
witchcraft. 1t hung cloud over So
ciety and filled the mouths of hypo-
critics with canting phrases and Bible
quotations. 1t drove nervous women
to early graves by the terrors of hell
and kept children frightened day
and night. 1t froze such tender
hearts as Burns's. Yet Burns was one
who somehow survived its influence,
He did not believe one word of it,
but made it the target of his scorn.
He of course made enemies, and these
enemies in turn did all they could to
injure the character and reputation
of the man who could wound them
both by pen and conversation. From
this source have come many of the
words spoken detrimental to his char
acter. He stood for universal human
ity and his opponents stood for the
opposite. Manhood, worth, were to
him more than titles and lands. His
poem, "For "a That and a. That" is
perhaps one of the very greatest Tyr
les ever written. The verdict of
hundred years is just, and century
more shall praise it as the past has
not. There is a justified scorn and
rich irony in these lines, but Burns
would have been a Samaritan to the
very class of men he aims at if one of
them had needed succor Take some
of the ringing lines
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp"
He held an honest scorn of those
who praise and compliment and
kneel just to touch the hem of some
privileged garment. He was no
sycophant.
"The man of independent mind,
He looks and lau CHS at a. that"
Hear him saying in true language:
1.-THE honest man. tho e'er sac poor,
Is king of men for a. that"
What wonderful line is this:
"The pith o. sense, the pride o worth"
Sense and worth: these are what
we honor men for. They survive
and offset everything else. Let us
read the last stanza of this glorious
poem:
"Thel let us pray that come 1t may,
AS come It win for a. that:
That sense and worth DER a the earth
May bear the gree for a. that
For a. that and a that;