The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-06-20
THE LABOR QUESTION.


An Interesting Sermon Preached at the
summit Avenue Church ON ssmdny. May
Twcnty-Third, on Labor and Educa-
tfonai Questions.
Still taking, as I have done several times
before, for my general subject, the Chris
tan and Church, present, as the particu-
lar thought with may occupy us to-day,
the Christian and his Church in relation to
The labor ind social disturbances of the
time; / do SO in response to letter from
the Bishop of New York, which was printed
in the daily papers, and which, I suppose,
most Of YOU have read. We are not, indeed,
among his flock, but as our interests SO
largely lie in the city over which he wisely
rules. I offer no further reason for acting
upon mis- letter in the same way as his own
dlergy are supposed to do.
After speaking OF the disorders OF the
dge, deprecating their violence, yet not
denying the wrongs of those who instigated
them. he calls upon the Church to use her
hover in this her great opportunity.
Quoting few words at the close of his
letter, we read
II beg you, reverend brethren. to set these
Nhings before your people with great plainness OF
Rpeech. In New York centres the capital that con.
this New World. In your congregations are many
of those who control that capital In all our par
lshes are people who employ labor Or reap benefits
man can innocently be Indifferent to the interests
OF workingmen and women that wealth brings
with it definite responsibility, frat to know how
best to use it to serve others well ourselves,
and then re$olutely to set about doing it, that lux
ury has its decent limits, and that we in this land
are IN DANCER in many directions o. oyerssepplng
unctions Fl kindred kinds have nearly destroyed
in the hearts of many Of the poor all faith in the
gsnuinsfhess OF religion whose founder declared,
All 10 are brethren but whose disciples more
orf Seem by their acts to say, stand thou there,
4ble me not when their brethren remind
~ 6ot merely. of their manifold needs, but of
1lst rights.
se, say. are some Of the things which need
slid TO your people Nor am I in doubt as to
sponse which they will waken- There are,
I srsuaded not few among us who long TO
eChristi2slity of our common Master translated
10 new deeds of brotherhood and self-sacrihce.
iere never was SO much intelligent sentiment in
n he Church as to great social problems as TO-
lay. There never WAS more willing self-sscrifce
Batting to be led forth to new conquests for the
"A krGss- There il q wide unrest concerning things
F3s they are; there is an honest longing 10 make
our Christianity more real ard more helpful;
there is fresh enthusiasm for God and His
Church, ready 70 kindle into fame. To these you
can speak. May God give you the wisdom to do so'
To come of you this letter may have
seemed unsatisfactory, perhaps because it
ives us, or appears to give us, nothing in
articular to do. 1t counsels no legislation,
announces no popular remedy; it simply
Ks us, earnestly enough, it is true, to
ag the teachings of the Church of Christ
"a par upon this evil. And men say, :" Is
Tall ?" Wills cities are convulsed, and
1ufactories closed, and business par
led, and the red flag of anarchy un.
He'd, this prelate calmly waves his hand
id says; Let the Church speak let
christian principle settle this matter; cler-
omen, to your posts" We can imagine
lhe angry howl of the mob at such advice.
n We can hear the scornful laugh of the
1nfldel. We can detect the contemptuous
sneer of the manufacturer whose hands are
tout" We catch the words, sis that all
the Bishop of the leading city Of America
has to say2 Is this d cure for insanity. in
Justice and disorder, to fling US the thir-
teenth chapter of Corinthians, the iniunc-
tons OF an apostle living in antiquity, the
command that servants SHOULD work in the
tear OF God, and masters remember Mas
ter IN Heaven. Why, the Bishop is 1900
years behind the time" Well. perhaps be
! is-but possibly he is not. A second
thought may lead US to feel that he is
beyond rather than behind the times that
bus is not only one way, but tie way Of set
Element and cure.
= VI, ds we leOk OFT upon these disturb
apces, let as remember for our comfort
that there Is no new evil under the sun,
no new skepticism, no new sin. And this
comforts us, because we are prone to fear
what is novel and unknown.
Sin Is as old as man. and in thu Law
world, every form of it, in which devils
X might delight, and men revel. was ex-
hausted. We IN ur gent ration come to il
as each generation has come, fresh and in
nocent. knowing not, till experience teaches
US, that sin is an aged delusion, q worn out
lie. There is no new sin. There is no new
skepticism. That, as / have often told
you, virtually exhausted itself long ago.
ana no original arguments for intideiity
nave been invented for q thousand years
oHly the forms, the methods, of skepiiclsna
nave changed. There Is no strictly modern
evil. When Abraham drove his fiocks over
the hills of Canaan, when Greece was ID
It's infancy, and Rome unborn, men fought
and enslaved their brothers and cheated IN
. trade, and the rich oppressed the poor and
the poor rebelled against the rich. The
strike Is but new name fer weapon as
2ld as Moses; the boycott species OF re-
'enge as ancient as the Pyramids. There
vere riots in old Babylon and rich mono 4
iolists by the score in ancient Rome. We
re fighting here only old foes with new
fces- solving only the problems on new
continent, that is all.
This, let us first remember. The past is
prophecy Of the present, and SO the ex-
Penence OF the past must guide us in the
fpreseat.
And this, lst, should give courage to he
friends OF order on the one hand, and take
me boast OF novelty, and, so, a weapon Of
terror, from their enemies on the other.
"a. We must remember chat these social
evils spring from our refusal to acknovI-
edge and submit to certain external laws
and rules of God. Legislators did not
make those laws and cannot unlnake them.
4They are inherent in the order eft nature.
Take the case of the inequality of men.
Ever since the world began, men and states
and religions have attempted to bring
about equality. And though all persist
emily have failed, we see our brothers
to day, ignorant Of the past, or blind to its
lesson, setting forth on the same disastrous