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BY REV. J. A. G. STIRLING, GLENELLA, MANITOBA.
THE vertebral column of the
Scotch national character is sturdy
independence. The Scotchman likes to exercise his right of private
judgment, and to maintain his own opinions and convictions. His views of
life are, generally, derived from the teaching of our Lord and His
apostles. He regards the Bible as a lamp unto his feet and a light unto
his path. Hence, he is generally a man of good principles and of a truly
religious life. He is marked by his spirit of devoutness and reverence,
and by his attachment to those great doctrines of evangelical religion
which John Knox preached so courageously, and which the Westminster
divines have embodied in the Westminster Confession of Faith and in the
Larger and Shorter Catechisms of our Presbyterian Church. He is shrewd,
reflective, and cautious, or canny. Heis marked by great intensity of
character. We speak of the "perfervidum ingenium Scotorum," and by this
phrase we mean that the Scottish character and disposition is very
intense. The typical Scotchman is very earnest and energetic, and puts his
whole soul into everything that he does; He obeys the inspired injunction:
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," (Ecci. ix. 10).
He throws this intense energy of character into the pursuit of literature,
or philosophy, or science, or art, or commerce,or agriculture, or war. He
is not easily discouraged, but perseveres to the very utmost. His motto is
"He wha tholes, overcomes." He is industrious, thrifty, fond of
money, and yet conscientious, liberal and generous. He is courageous in
facing and overcoming his country's foes, and courageous likewise in the
arena of moral conflict as he finds it in his own life. He is reticent and
self-contained, but behind this reticence aud self-restraint there flows
the perennial and inexhaustible fountain of poetic sympathy and genial
humour. He is fond of travel and adventure, and there is no spot an earth
where he may not be found causing even the wilderness to blossom as the
rose. He is conservative, or opposed to changes, and ever clings to the
good old customs, traditions and institutions of his native land. He is
also intensely patriotic. Wherever he may go, he always cherishes a deep
and undying love for Bonnie Scotland. Sometimes, he wishes that he were
back again to " the land of the mountain and the flood," "the land of the
purple heather and the trailing mist," and then he sings
"Oh, why left I my hame,
Why did I cross the deep?
Oh, why left I the land
Where my forefathers Bleep?
I sigh for Scotia's shore,
And I gaze across the sea,
But I canna get a
blink
O'
my ain countrie!" |
