Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-11-08
'sThc Influence Of Christianity
ON Remu lucrative Labor,

Ia Paper by Mr.. J. A: Field, of st. Louis;
read at the NJ. f. Ministerial Association
held at Ironton, Sept. 1926, 1871
The successive ages of the world have had
their systems of religion, which have been
more or less beneficial to man; and have ex
for good, just in proportion as the system
approaches the worship of the true God.
1t will be our object to compare some of
these systems with the Christian religion, and
by this comparison show the benefits of Chris
tianity to labor; and afterwards inquire why
all Christians are not possessed with all
abundance of the wealth of the world.
One cannot look upon that wonderful ODE
lisk In Central Park without recognizing the
intelligence, comprehending mind and keen
perceptiye faculties of its builders, in writ
ing their inscriptions so deep that the storms
of desert sands and the crumbiing hand of
time, for perhaps 1900 years, have not erased
them. II Christians could initiate their ex
ample, and inscribe the image of the Savior
as deeply upon their hearts, then eternity
would only add depth to their love for Jesus.
Egypt, the home of this monument, was
one of the first countries civilized and brought
into 4 fixed social and political system. Its
history dates back with tolerable correctness
for 600 years. Its geography is connected
with sacred and classical writings. 1t is
looked upon as parent of Grecian wisdom,
the inyentress of science, the oracle of ma
tions, and the fountain head of philosophy,
in whose schools. probably, Moses, Pytha-
goras and Plato were educated.
The pyramids are the grandest buildings
in stone that human labor has ever erected.
Arabic writer's tell us that their builders
lived 800 years before the flood. At this ear
ly period the people of this wonderful coun-
try had learned to transport, distance OF
nearly 200 miles, the largest blocks of granite
ever moved out of the quarry; to cut and
polish then, with precision and accuracy
We cannot now surpass; and to use them
constructively, with u degree Of science un-
surpassed from that day to this.
This country has also well defined religious
institutions. The meaning of the word pyr-
amid has a religious significance. According
to the Coptic, it means the SUMS rays, or tenn
pie OF the sun. A survey by Napoieon's en-
gineers show the pyramids OF Jizeh to stand
due north and south, which strengthens the
belief that they were built for Astronomical
observations, as we'll as tombs. The obliquf-
ty OF their northern sides comedies exactly
with the obliquity of the sums rays at the
summer solstice. Astronomy formed an i'm
pyramids may therefore be regarded as mon
ilments of a well-defined system of religion.
Herodotus was informed by priest of
Memphis tfrat the cost of the great pyramid
was Inscribed upon ii in Egyptian characters,
and amounted to 160 talents of silver; that
1OO. 900 men were employed for the space of
thirty years in its erection, receiving no com
The food they ate consisted OF
ieeks and onions, and If the whole amount
extended had been for food alone, 1t would
have amounted to less than two cents per day
for each laborer employed. Such arc the
benefits to labor of Il religion founded on
The first post-diiuvian city of which we
have any record, and which doubtless was
the original Of the great Babylon, with its
one hundred gates of solid brass, whose walls
were sixty miles in circumference, three hun
dred feet high and eighty feet thick,
and in whose archives at its capture by Alex
ander the Great, were found astronomical
running back to within fifteen
wears of the Hood. This city was the birth
DIace of Il monarchy whose rulers attempted
the personification of Deity. Its frst king,
Bell. signifying the Lord, was the head of this
DYNASTY. Its magnificence centered in Nebu~
chadnezzar, and its elimination in the pro-
clsmation Of Darius, that no God or man
save himself should be woyshipped for the
space of thirty days
Its greatest monarch, in his attempted
deiied the living Sod; and to graf
ifv his Median bride, built the wonderful
changing gardens" requiring tho labor of
200, zoe slaves, who wrought without eompen-
sation. A snonarchial religion pays no wages
to those who labor for its establishment.
The favorite motto of men Of learning is
that acknowledge eieyates y people, but TO
have the full force of the eieyating power OF
it must he accompanied by Chris
tian influence. Greece, that wonderful coun
try which, by her victory with 10000 men at
the battle Of Marathon over 300, 600 Persians.
showed to the world the superiority OF in
telligence over numbers. Yet intelligence
prompted the Greeks to no higher aims than
the establishment Of the Olimpiau games,