Rabbi Burns

Rabbi Burns has much to teach us!

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face
Great puddin o’ the chieftain race!
A boon them a’ ye tak your place….

That reversal includes many.

Still, mustn’t grumble. Well fed and watered on Burn’s night, drouthy neibours meeting drouthy neibours, it is a pleasure to read his words and the images that spring to mind.

It is impenetrable language for many, and his reputation has slipped over the years, sadly. Is that because he was demonstrably human or just poor?

Holy Willie crafts a rare argument for ‘virtue’ which we would all do weel to bear in mind….

O Lord, Thou kens what zeal I bear,
When drinkers drink, an' swearers swear,
An' singin there, an' dancin here,
Wi' great and sma';
For I am keepit by Thy fear
Free frae them a'.

But yet, O Lord! confess I must,
At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust:
An' sometimes, too, in wardly trust,
Vile self gets in;
But Thou remembers we are dust,
Defil'd wi' sin.

In addition to the thorn of lust how many of us could put our hands on our hearts and truly say we are not guilty of:

Travelling on the Sabbath;

Not reading the Bible on a Sunday;

Digging the garden on the Sabbath.

So then, guilty as charged.

May we all be preserved from canting hypocrites and enjoy sharing the earth with the

Wee sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie

And the

Panic in his breastie.

Still

Its comin’ yet, for a’that
That man to man, the warld o’er,
Shall brothers be for a’ that!

Sorry Lassies; it’s a sort of male bonding Laddie thing!
I Wish!