The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-06-03
WORK W4NTED.
baltimore Mirror. |

baltimore MiIror.l
It is one of the evils of the times that
| thousands of willing hands can find so lit.
| tie work to do. Enforced idlepess is infin
| ltely harder on men who have any self
respect than enforced labor. In fact there
is no satisfaction IN life without useful
| occupation of tie mind, of the body, or
both. When a man is hard at work, he
| looks indeed to rest as something which is
his ultimate aim /; but when at rest, after
needful recuperatlop, he feels an inward
| impulse to be again in action. When Jack
Tar is tossed upon the ocean, suffering with
cold, wet. fatigue, and dagger, all at once,
he longs for port and the inglorious ease of
til sailor boarding house, which he enjoy
ed so much-for three days, may yhap-at
the end of his last voyage but, the storm
abated, the haven reached, the fresh grub
consumed, aud wages gone, he soon tires of
| rest and ease and idieness; and away he
goes to ship on the first vessel which will
take him back to the hardships and the
perils of the sea.
Action, motion, work, are our perpetual
necessities. There is no ultimate rest bnt
| one-nay, there is no ultimate rest. We
are not made to stagnate. Whatever stag
| mates becomes impure. 1t is perpetual
decree that by the sweat of the brow shall
We earn our bread; and when we eat bread
which we do not earn, it pals the taste.
Men have been sometimes divided into two
o superabundance of food and no appetite,
and those who have a keen appetite with
out food enough to crafty it. These, how
ever, are extreme cases, and neither ex-
treme ia enviable. A man, for that modi
cum of happiness which is called content
ment, needs to work for his daily bread
and his work should provide it in simple
and equivalent abundance. Whatit brings
beyond this is attended with commensu-
rate cares, and sometimes with more than |
commensurate evils. When a man works |
hard to support himself and his family, as
true, honest bread. winner, he is doing |
well, and earning contentment with bread;
when he works to make his family rich,
and to exempt his children from the peces
sity of labor, he is not doing so well for
himself or for them as he may falsely ina
CINE. Youth passed in idteness, with
great expectations" is a sure passport 10 a
worthless, if not also to vicious life.
Riches should never be the aim of the
wOrkingmah's life, for, as a rule, be will not
enjoy them, nor will his children. The
Christian theory, which is a philosophy
above all of that of scientists, never pro
poses riches as in any sense the aim of
mans life. But there is & practical belief,
in every Christian country,
as in Pagan countries, that riches consti-
tute the Sunlmum bonun,, and coutroversi-
alists sometimes use the aueGlM of this or
that community as proof of higher Chris
|
mites! There could not be greater mis-
take than this.
True Christianity, by impelling men to
the faithful performance of the duties of
their state Os life, will ensure to all an
equitable distribution of the fruits of labor;
bat it will never foster the strife for riches.
1t sees in them nothing other than q delu
sion aud a snare. The safes containing the
rich mans treasures, gold, enbacks,
bonds, are, as sources of happiness, worth
Just about as much to him as 30 many bas-
kets full of Dead Sea apples-not more, not
ess.
Yet everybody wants to be rich, and that
without labor. The wish will only be
yratified with very few who fall heirs to
The Iabors, or rather the fruits of the labors,
IF others; but note them-if idle, they are ,
miserable and in danger; if vicious, or vic
ousIy inclined, they are lost.
God orders all things wisely and we'll,
and therefore daily labor is the portion of
It is useless to attempt to evade
,he decree, for not more surely is death the
wages of Gin, than the penalty of idleness
9 weariness of life, If not even utter per-
lition. st. Alphonsus Liguori made a vow
n early life never to pass an idle moment.
This, which he doubtless faithfully OBJ
,erved, seems to most of us fearful or even
m practicable, but he probably found in its
ulfilment q pere nnial satisfaction. Such
VOW would of course not be incompatible
With 30 mnch Relation as may be neces-
,ary for proper mental or physical relaXa-
ion. Thus a day y-laborer working in the
ields or on the highway might rest in read 4
ng or in conversation at proper times, and
he student might put aside his books for s
Ome physical exertiOn when-the weary
niad needs term of relief.
There is now in our country horde Of
dlers and marauders known as tramps,
VhO want to live entirely upon the labors
( 3 . /. ~ j p