The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1875-03-11

want of good clothes alone may be Me
reason for working men not attending
places of worship. 1t would be no reason
for u llgll-soulcd christian emitting TO
fulfill what he conceived to be u duty.
But working classes generally do not re-
gard NIT 'ndancc ut u place Of worship ms
an essential; and 1t Is not every man who
is sufficiently hlgh-souled to brave even Il
petty social m%artyrdom. 1t must be re-
membcred, too, that Sunday being the on
ly day the working classes have entirely
to themselves, they require 1t for rest,
fresh mir. and certain phases OF social IN
tcrcourse that the limited leisure OF other
days does not admit OF their carrying out
How mucl, truth and force there Is, 100,
in what We shall quote In this connection
IN regard to the poor: : with nothing
but their labor to depend upon, and The
wages Of labor 80 low US In u vast number
of instances to make it n practical impos-
sibility to do anything beyond provide IN
Il coarse and limited fashion for the ma
terial necessities of the passing day I'LL
certain, too, OF constant employment.
they cannot enjoy even the passing 2oou
of the times. Labour-tired In Dody,
faded. and cnervated In mind, win cark-
ING cares on every hand, and dreadihg the
annrooch of old age when their services
can no longer remuncratc, even If
MT east aside for the labor Of younger and
stouter men-Grcat God! Why Is it so!
They are certainly born unto trouble.
70 labor with but scant reward, to endure
with but little prospect of relief, is their
lot from the cradle to the grave. While
they read in The Book that it is the rich
who will find it hard to enter the king
dom of Heaven. they arc assured by those
who assume to speak with authority upon
such matters that it Is they, the poor, who
are likely to be excluded from the heaven
ly paradise, as they have been from the
earthly. How? Because church-going is
made the test of rcligion-the be-all and
end-all. But common sense steps in and
SCOTS 1.-THE narrow-mindedness and Sec
tarianis,n that puts so supreme Il meaning
upons SO comparatively secondary thing.
And then the non-attendant comes to
think but very lightly Of church-going
altogether. That it would in some re-
spectS be better for the working classes If
they attended places of worship in the
same degree that other classes do may be
freely conceded. But to say of them be-
cause they do. not, they have no hope
hereafter, or ever that they have no real
religion, or true christianity, Is, upon the
part of those INDUCING in such uttcranccs,
saying in pcriphrastic language that they
know nothing whatever of the working
classes. And there are members of those
classes who do not hesitate to say that it is
in the same way saying that such speak
ers themselves lack one of the grander es-
~sentlals of christianity-tIle charity that
thinks no evil. Though there is much in
their life that at times is almost enough to
drive them to doubt the existence of a
principle of eternal justice, they do firmly
believe in it; believe that though it is often
set aside here, it will be asserted hereafter.
Such Il belief to them is hope--tIe hope of
a brighter, better, %juster, more all-equal
hereafter, by which they canno but be
gamers, as those who have not had their
good things in this life will get
them there. And it is well for society
that the masses have this hope and belief,
If they had not, il they were hopeless as
regards the hereafter-were re;Aly per-
suadcd that
Vain as the has-been is the great to-bc,"
then would they not endure the present
as patiently rs they have done and do. II
they thought that all that they could know
OF good or evil was was to be found in
this worlG. alone, can it be doubted that
they would attempt to seize a larger share
of the good things than now falls to their
portion? All, lite is u mystery, but there
must be a sphere
" Where all will be made right which so
puzzles us here"
As Burns says:
80 Death the poor mans dearest friend!
The kindest and the best!
Welcome the hour my aged limbs
Are laid with thee at rest!
The great. the wealthy, fear thy blow,
From pomp and pleasure torn;
But oh! Il blest relieftO those
That, weary-laden.mourn"