For the refutation of such monstrous doctrines it may be urged that, according to Scripture, savage as well as cultured peoples have a consciousness of guilt towards the Divine Judge.  The object of the Gospel is to end the history of the culprit as such and to place him upon a new standing—­“the wind bloweth as it listeth”:  a new birth operated by the acceptance of the Gospel proclamation addressed to every creature, black as well as white.  Growth and moral amendment properly “follow” that spiritual birth; neither is conceivable before, except purely human education, which is incapable of effecting a change, and in fact tends only to fortify the natural man in his implacable hostility against the newly implanted element, each lusting against the other.[12]

History records how the Spanish and other early explorers operated with the aborigines in the regions discovered by them.  The territories with their inhabitants were declared possessions accruing to their respective sovereigns, whose main policy was the exploitation of all the wealth possible.  The aborigines were dispossessed, treated as conquered peoples, and forced to do the exploiting labour.  No other results could follow than the gradual diminution and final exhaustion of all the wealth and the partial, if not total, extinction of the aboriginal races.

What retribution overtook those nations is also on record.  Those enslaved peoples were forced to accept the religion of their conquerors.  Can true converts be made to order by constraint, motives of self-interest, or by baptizing them en bloc?  What else but deepest aversion and mistrust could a religion inspire which is professed and taught by a people who practise spoliation, murder, and other descriptions of wickedness abhorrent even to a savage mind?  The aborigines would daily behold their own land and possessions enjoyed by usurpers and “would be teachers,” who subjected them besides to slavery and abject misery.  Could the religion of such teachers ever find favour with their victims?  How could doctrines of righteousness and love be understood when so glaringly violated by their preceptors?

It presents a sad paradox to see that the Boers, who are in many respects consistently religious and even exemplary, could uphold principles which place coloured people out of caste, not only in regard to political rights but also as to the common religious standing before the Creator.  It would be unjust to charge the Boers with actually barbarous practices towards the natives—­what they do enforce is their submission to the condition of servants.