Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-17
The Dignity Of Lsbnr.

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l have noticed that the slender brook
which carries the mill is more musical on
Sunday than OF any other DAY because
the mill stands still, and the brook. having
nothing to do with its water, gurgles over
the dam, and makes a thousand times more
merry noise than on any other day. But
Monday comes, and the gates are hoisted,
and the mill runs, and the brook is not SO
musical but the mill is more so. This
mill did nothing on Sunday, and the brook
is doing more on Monday than IL did on
Sunday. 1t played on Sunday, but it
works on Monday. And Christians, as it
were, play in the spirit, and have holy
jollity or Sunday. 1t is q holiday for
them Nor would l undervalue their ex.
perience or Joy. Bat say that they are
not so busy when they sing and pray and
rel ice In the sanctuary as when, by the
power of some moral emotion, they are
combating temptation, and resisting pride,
and overcoming seifishness, and building
again the kingdoms of this world with the
holy stones OF the New Jerusalem
Then, when piety costs; when it
means bearing, heroism and achieve
ment not then when it seeks Joy,
but when it seeks battle-then men are
nearest TO God, and most like Christ
When man stands upon the deck. and at
the bench, and by the forge, and IN the
furrow, and in the colliery, then, If ever,
il he has life to live of true piety, is the
time and there at the post Of duty is the
place. For all the humblest svocations and
employments are SO arranged that, while
they serve to support the actor, they do
hundred times as much for the community
as they do for him that follows them. 1t
is unfortunate that our habits Of thought
have not been more Christianized, and that
our phrase has not been converted, as well
as the people who use it. For we are &C
customed to speak of trades, various
manual employments and professions, in
their lowest relations. If we speak OF the
carpenters business, IL is either as a toll or
as support and these in their relative
positions are not unworthy of cOnsidera.
ton bat that is not the whole, nor the
half that is the least part. What man
himself derives from the cunning craft that
he pursues is not half 30 much as what Re
gives by it.
The carpenter that builds mansion,
rearing it through the whole season, re-
ceives a few thousand dollars, and is sup.
DOsSu 70 DS well paul. s-uo - AilbSSii Sah-a-
fed. And men seem TO think that is the
| whole he has DONE He has worked dill
gently during the summer he has earned
his thousands to support his family, and
| perhaps thousand or two is laid up for
| the time to come. Aud what has he done !?
| Earned his money? Yes, he has earned his
money. but he has built mansion in which
family shall be sheltered through hun.
L L
the old patriarch shall offer sacrifice and
| incense of devotion in the presence of CON-
ing generations many. He has built the
walls where social JOY shall be- Here is
the room that grief shall Eli with funeral,
and here is the room that Joy shall fill with
wedding Here is the room where chill
dren shall sport through the livelong year.
| Here are the threads of life, dark or light,
| gold and silver, or black, to be wrought
| out and woven together. And here, when
he is dead, and his children die, his work
| stands, and ia the home of peace and com
| fort and piety-the very temple of God.
| He built one, and ten, and twenty, and it
may be hundred Of such dwellings and
he got what a few pitiful thousands of
dollars. And he gave what? He gave the
community benefits opportunities, instru
ments, influences. In his skill, in his
mind, or incarnated in timber or IL metal,
he gave to the community priceless gifts.
And ara we to take these precious inward
nesaes of men which are imbedded in their
labor, and to think of them only in the
poor, pitiful light of pslf of what they
brought back to the pocket, and not of
what, through them, the man brought back
TO the community?
Why, that old smith, rugged himself,
almost, as the storms he prepares to COM
bat, hammers morning and night upon the
links that form the chain which clasps the
cable. 1t may be, as in the oldsn time,
yet more ponderously, that he in the stithy
works on the huge shank of the anchor ;
and when his summers work or winters
toll is done, and it is sold for the ship, men
ask him, ." What got you for your labor ?"
| Nobody ever thinks of saying to him,
you have worked whole winter to
| make gift what have you given to the
community g What has he given? 1t
may not be known for long time. On
voyage after voyage the ship gees, and
there lies his gift, useless and unsupported.
Some day, the ship bears back thousand
precious souls, among them mothers whose
families are at home waiting for them TO
return; fathers, who cannot be spared
from the neighborhood public men of
signal servics-the very salt of the times
in which they live; heroes and patriots
many. Then it is that the storm beats
down and seeks to whelm them all in the
sea- and to whelm the community in mourn
ing. Then it is that, when every other eff
fort has been made in vain, the anchor is
thrown out And row the storm RACES
with increased violence, as if it were yet
more angry because it is thwarted. But
the good blacksmith's work holds. Sink.
ing far out of sight and graphing the
foundations of the earth, it will not let go.
Aud we, for the first time, see the value of
his gift. Every link has been properly
welded and, though the wind bowls, and
the sea wages fierce and desperate battle,
and the strain is tremendous, the storm
passes by, and there rides the gallant ship
safe That is what he gave. He gave a
chain, an anchor to the community, and
salvation to the hundreds on board the
ship, and joy and peace where the tidings
come of souls saved from the remorseless
Deep And yet how many men think
simply that he made an anchor, and got so
many hundred dollars for it +! He made an
anchor, and saved hundred lives
l[Hsnry Ward Beecher.