nglish
bloodsuckers had poured in, fevered by the lust of gold, and still more
and more, until the land was overrun by them, as the land of Pharaoh
under the plague of locusts. And not only that, but they had brought
with them every life and soul destroying vice which Satan and his
hell-kingdom, Europe, could bring to bear to contaminate and utterly
corrupt a God-fearing people.

The speaker went on to portray in lurid colours the vices of
Johannesburg, a town, he put it, purely English, which those emissaries
of Satan had raised in their midst, contriving to put his finger, with
considerable native astuteness, on the darker spots inseparable from the
advance of European methods and progress. He further drew contrasts
between the simple life of the young Boer of a quarter of a century
back, and the smart, educated, English-speaking, English-dressing, young
Boer up to date, so vivid and so little to the advantage of the latter,
as to cause several there present perceptibly to wince.

"Brothers," he went on, "the time for purging away these iniquities is
at hand. The eye of God is ever upon His people, and His wrath upon
their oppressors. Who turned back England's might, now nineteen years
ago? Who turned the hearts of her trained and drilled soldiers into
water, so that they fled down the sides of Majuba like hunted bucks
before us--before a few farmers, whom they despised as so many ignorant
Boers? Who smote them hip and thigh at Schuins Hoogte, and, indeed,
everywhere, down to the wicked attempt upon our land--our beloved land,
two years ago? Not the arm of our brave burghers, but the arm of the
Lord. His arm brought us in triumph forth from the midst of our
enemies, and assured our peace and safety, and prosperity, in the land
wherein we dwell. And as the might of the Lord was over us then, so is
it now. England may send out her ships, as she is doing--may pour her
soldiers into our land, as she is doing--may threaten our noble
President, as she is doing--but what is that to us? When a nation, a
God-fearing nation, is in peril, God will raise up for that nation a
deliverer. He has raised up one for this nation, and the name of that
deliverer is Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger."

The roar of applause which went up at the mention of the great name--
held in veneration by every Dutchman from the Zambesi to Cape Agulhas--
would have drowned the speaker's voice, even if he had not been
sufficiently master o