News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-06-24
SERMONS ON LABOR.
The Genuine Hardships of the WORKING


DR.. Talmage preached in the Brook
Ign Tabernacle Sunday morning, the
third of his series of sermons on the
labor question. His text was from
Isaiah, XII. $50 the carpenter en-
couraged the goldsmith and he that
smootheth with the hammer him that
smote the anvil'--a sort of prophecy OF
the Knights of Labor, where men of all
| trades unite to encourage each other.
''Men see in their own work" said
| DR.. Talmage, "hardships and trials,
while they recognize no hardships OF
trials in anybody else's occupation.
will speak this morning of the genuine
hardships of the working classes. There
is great danger that the prosperous
classes, because of the bad things that
have been said by the false friends of
| labor, shall conclude that all this labor
| trouble is a hullabalOo about nothing.
You would not, neither would I, submit
without protest to the oppression to
which many of our laborers are sub
jected. You do a great wrong to the
laboring classes if you hold them re-
spOnsible for the work of the scoun-
drelly anarchists. You cannot hate
their deeds more thoroughly than do
all the industrial classes. At the head
of the chief organ of the Knights of
Labor | find vigorous disclaimers
"The biggest business firm IN Amer
lea to-day is Grip, Gouge, Grind & Co.
Look at the woes of the womanly tail
ors who have not made any strike and
who are dying by thousands and dying
~ ,,n1,a # +l,n vii a.
of our cities are the employers of these
women. They beat them down to the
last penny, and try to cheat them out Of
that.
''By what principle of justice is it
that women in many of our cities get
only two thirds as much as men, and in
many cases only half Here is the
gigantic njustice-that for work equally
well If not better done woman receives
far less compensation than man. Ihear
from all this land the wall of woman
hood. Man has nothing to answer to
that wall but batteries. Give her no
more tatteries-give her justice! There
are 60, 900 sewing girls in New York
and Brooklyn. Across the sunlight
comes their death groan. 1t is not such
a cry as comes from those suddenly
hurled out of life, but a slow, grinding,
horrible wasting away. There is some
thing in this world awfully a-twist
The only wonder with me is that God
don't smash this world up and start an
other in place of it.
Zone great trial that the working
classes feel is physical exhaustion. Let
all men and women of toll remember
that this work will soon be over. An
other great trial is privation of taste and
sentiment. A great many of the work
ing people OF our country are living in
cramped abodes, struggling amid great
hardships, living in neIghborhoods
where they do not want to live but
where they have to live.
LET me cheer such persons by telling
them to look up and behold the inheT-
itance that God has reserved for them.
The first encouragement is that one of
the greatest safeguards against evil is
plenty to do. Active employment is one
Of the greatest sureties for a pure and
upright life. Another encouragement
is the fact that their families are going
to have the very best opportunity for
development and usefulness. The chill
dren of fortune are very apt to turn out
poorly. Again, there are now so many
opportunities of gaining information.
One more encouragement-yo tolls in
his world are only intended to be q dis.
;ipline by which you shall be prepared
or heaven. Christ, the carpenter OF
Nazareth, is the workingman's Christ.