‘If you call Bible reading and psalm singing, civilisation, I won’t argue the matter with you; in any case, they are bound to bend before the English race, sooner or later.’
‘By your faith shall ye be saved!’ interposed Steve.
‘I mean that the Boers do not believe that salvation lies in superior learning, in high civilisation, or in superiority of numbers or arms, but in right and justice and the blessing of God?’
‘You may call it _cant_ if you like. But it was such _cant_ that gave Dingaan and his twelve thousand warriors into the hands of five hundred Boers. It was such cant that enabled the Boers to carry on the war of independence against mighty England to a successful issue. It was such _cant_ that brought the elaborate plots of Rhodes, Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionists to utter failure. It will be such cant that will make South Africa a free and united Republic, in which all the races of the world shall live free and united! The Boers believe in the efficacy of prayer: they believe that by prayer and through faith they can move mountains, and--England itself.’
‘Bah! do you believe in such nonsense? Do you really believe that you have only to ask God, if God there be, for anything you want, from a needle to an anchor, to receive it?’
‘I certainly believe that God _is_, and that if we ask we shall receive, if it be good for us, and if we ask in faith. I also believe that blasphemy and unbelief shall be punished,’ said Steve, reprovingly.
‘Rot!’ was the irreverent reply of Bock. ‘I do not believe that there is such a thing as God, beyond the godliness there is in Nature. There is no such thing as a God that answers prayer, or punishes blasphemy.’
‘I am sorry for you,’ was Steve’s gentle reply; ‘for the day shall come when you shall _know_ that there is a God of Wrath, who punishes blasphemy as well as a God of Love, who answers prayer.’
Bock answered with a roaring and mocking laugh, and said, ‘Well, I shall prove to you that there is no such God as you worship. _If there be a God, Who punishes blasphemy, I call upon Him to strike me dead, now or within forty-eight hours._ There, I have thrown the gauntlet down, let your God pick it up. I have given Him time enough to do it in.’