ch easier to follow than the Sermon on the Mount. It
is easier not to commit murder than to hold out your right cheek after
your left one has been slapped. It is easier not to steal than to run
after the man who has robbed us, in order to offer him what he has not
taken. It is easier to honor our parents than to love our enemies.

The teachings of the Gospel are trying to human nature. There is no
religion more difficult to follow; and this is why, in spite of its
beautiful, but too lofty, precepts, there is no religion in the world
that can boast so many hypocrites--so many followers who pretend that
they follow their religion, but who do not, and very probably cannot.

Being unable to love man, as he is bidden in the Gospel, the "unco guid"
loves God, as he is bidden in the Old Testament. He loves God in the
abstract. He tells Him so in endless prayers and litanies.

For him Christianity consists in discussing theological questions,
whether a minister shall preach with or without a white surplice on, and
in singing hymns more or less out of tune.

As if God could be loved to the exclusion of man! You love God, after
all, as you love anybody else, not by professions of love, but by deeds.

When he prays, the "unco guid" buries his face in his hands or in his
hat. He screws up his face, and the more fervent the prayer is (or the
more people are looking at him), the more grimaces he makes. Heinrich
Heine, on coming out of an English church, said that "a blaspheming
Frenchman must be a more pleasing object in the sight of God than many a
praying Englishman." He had, no doubt, been looking at the "unco guid."

If you do not hold the same religious views as he does, you are a wicked
man, an atheist. He alone has the truth. Being engaged in a discussion
with an "unco guid" one day, I told him that if God had given me hands
to handle, surely He had given me a little brain to think. "You are
right," he quickly interrupted; "but, with the hands that God gave you
you can commit a good action, and you can also commit murder."
Therefore, because I did not think as he did, I was the criminal, for,
of course, he was the righteous man. For all those who, like myself,
believe in a future life, there is, I believe, a great treat in store:
the sight of the face he will make, when his place is assigned to him in
the next world. _Qui mourra, verra._

Anglo-Saxon land is governed by the "unco guid." Good society cordially
despises hi