Gilpin observer., 1899-09-21
soLACE IN PSALMS.
BOER REPUBLIC MUCH LIKE
OUR OWN AT START.
The News That the British Gunboats
Had BOmbarded Boston Called Forth
tho Same Kind of supplication That
Kruger Has Done.

Kruger Has Done.
President Kruger. in the course of
an interview today regarding the crisis
said he regarded the Boer position best
defined by the eighty-third Psalm" :"
This announcement from South Afri-
ca reminds us that this is not the first
time that statesmen have found COM
fort in the Book of Psalms. The first
continental congress met at Philadel-
phia in September, 1774. 1t was pro-
posed that the proceedings should be
opened with prayer. Mr.. Joy of New
York and Mr.. Rutledge of South Caro-
lima objected on the ground that the
delegates were not sufficiently united in
their religious sentiments, some being
Episcopalians, some being Anabaptists,
others >Presbyterians, and still others
Congregationalists. A false report had
just reached Philadelphia that Boston
had been bombarded by the British.
What followed is thus narrated in a
letter written by John Adams to his
wife under date of September 16, 1774:
''Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said
he was no bigot and could hear a
prayer from gentleman of piety and
virtue who was at the same time
friend to his country. He was strang-
er in Philadelphia, but he had heard
that Mr.. Duche (Dushay they pro-
nounce iD deserved that character, and
therefore he moved that Mr.. Duche, an
Episcopal clergyman, might be desired
to read prayers to the congress tomor
row morning. The motion was second
ed and passed in the affirmative. Mr..
Randolph, our president, waited on
Mr.. Duche, and received for answer
that if his health permitted he certain
ly would. Accordingly next morning
he appeared with his clerk and in his
pontiicals and read several prayers in
the established form, and then read the
collect for the seventh day of Septem-
ber, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm.
You must remember that this was the
next morning after we heard the horri-
Bile rumor of the cannonade of Boston.
I never saw greater effect upon an
audience. 1t seemed as if heaven had
ordained that Psalm to be read on that
morning."
There is a singular likeness between
some of the verses which thus impress
ed the continental congress of 1774 and
portions of the eighty-third Psalm,
which Dom Paul finds SO expressive of
his own feelings in this year, 1899. In
the eighty-third Psalm, to which the
Boer president appeals, we find these
words:
Keep not thou silence, o God; hold
not thy peace, and be not still, o God.
For 10, thine enemies make a tu-
multi; and they that hate thee have lift
ed up the head.
20 my God, make them like wheel;
as the stubble before the wind
LAS the fire burneth wood, and as a
fame setteth the mountain on fire.
: so persecute them with thy tempest,
and make them afraid with thy storm
Let them be confounded and troub-
led forever; yea, let them be put to
shame and perish"
While in the thirty-fifth Psalm which
thrilled the continental congress of
IVA, we read:
plead my cause, o Lord, with them
that strive with me; fight against them
that fight against me.
Let them be confounded and put to
shame that seek after my soul; let
them be turned back and brought to
confusion that devise my hurt.
Let them be as chaff before the
wind; and let the angel of the Lord
chase them.
Let them be ashamed and brought
to confusion together that rejoice at
mine hurt"
Thus the same sentiment expressed
in different portions of Holy Writ has
afforded solace to the troubled states
men of America and of Africa in the
latter days of the eighteenth and nine
teenth centuries.