The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-06-19

life will be failure. Your career VIII be
grievous disappointment to those who are
near and dear to you.
II YOU have been impressed with the belief
that the education which you get out OF BOOKS
will keep You from work, you are mistaken.
What you have been taught here has Du' one
end in yiew--to enable you to accomplish the
work that is before you with more intelligence,
and therefore with moro ease, than would be
the case if YOU had no knowledge Of books.
If YOU have read your books
diligently, you viii have fognd in thom
many wise sayings that have becn recorded
OF the ancients. Some of the languages you
have ildied are dead but the literature they
embodv and embalm is as vital today as it was
when Homer wrote and Socrates e1pounded:
Even the ancents understood the dignity OF
labor, and across the centuries we hear their
great orators and writer's eXclaiming, Labor
is iuvncibc," Labor conquers all things"
Labor, like virtue, has its own reward, and
the man who uses it not only for his own well
fare and comfort but Tor the welfare and COM
fort of his neighbors. needs only the Divine
grace to make him perfect man-leeds only
Divine grace to make his happiness complete
in this world and the next.
You will find nature waiting patiently for
you to turn its boundless resources into chan
nels of usefulness. God intended that nature
should develop itself only in accord with the
labor of man, and even with what has been
accomplished in science and art-the fruit OF
the endless labor of man-we have
not yet even approached the scriptural
idea of nature. We stand after all these CEN
turies at the Threshold of the temple, and it
is labor that holds the key. You will find
nothing finished in this world that pertains to
mans work. In every field Of labor,on land
and on water,you will find unfinished work
Dreams Of perfect social order may be enter
tanned and elaborated by man. Any social
order, that is not based on labor is Utopan-
the dream OF a visionary. Systems of thought,
though they be ripe with age, will disappear
unless they have as their basis the vital fact of
labor.
Nations, religions and PHILOSOPHERS rise and
fall in all ages. They fall because they are
not based on the fact that we were placed here
for a purpose that we have responsibilities
resting on US and duties to perform. Only the
Christian religion seems to possess any degree
OF permanency, and that system recognizes
the dignity of labor. Christ died to redeem
the world, but lie did not redeem man from
the necessities Of labor.
Let me impress upon you all the lesson of
my address, that the Christian cannot be happy
without work, that the professional man can
not be happy without work, that no one can
be happy without work, and that tits our duty
to so dignity labor that all will look upon it as,
next to religion, the true source Of temporal
happiness. Whatever your vocation in life,
young gentlemen, let it be your constant aim
to dignity mans labor.
Encourage it, for it is more important than
either craftsmanship or patriotism, being
the basis of both. You all know what the
decentralization of labor means. You have
seen some of the results OF it i'll our own
country. 1t means anarchy, confusion and
bioodshed. Let us take it out of the bands of
the demagogue and the aRitator, and by wise
and judicious laws lift it to its proper levil in
hand with religion to make this a great and
glorious land.