The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-11
CHRIST A MEDIATOR.
Homestead Riot Furnishes a
Theme for Preachers.
BLAME LAID ON BOTH SIDES.
Rev. Alfred Inwood's Sermon on the
Sabbath Ouestion-Talk OF Con-
soiidating NJ. T.. Churches,

In Plymouth Congregational church
last night the Rev. Wallace Nutting
nreached on THE Problem of Labor"
with especial reference to the trouble at
Homestead. An audience greeted the
minister that filled every inch. both Of
sitting and standing room. Among other
things he said:
Neither the measures taken by the owners of
the II omestead plant. nor the measures taken
by the workmen there, were one whit I'm adj
vance OF the measures taken by Cain to settle
with Abel the question of the rewards of labor.
People have been following this method of
settlement ali the years, yet somehow it does
not seem to settle. You have been accustomed
10 regard the suggestions OF Jesus on this point
as impractical. Allow me to inquire If any
more impractical method can be named than
the method by which men are Knocked on the
head or shot through the heart? Did such
settlement ever settle? Your cool man of BUSH
ness the employer, your banded laboring men,
have in their wisdom looked into this
thing; they have taken long evenings to
discuss ii. They have gone about in
circle aud in the year of our Lord, 1892, in this
month of July they have just swung around
into Gains position, they have risen upon their
brother, smitten him and slain him. Hail to
the profound wisdom and success of the
political economy OF the last decade of the nine
teenth century, The onward march OF the
knights of labor and capital is like the prog
ress OF the boy on his hobby horse;-after
much squirting and sword-brandishing and
shoutiug.he arrives just whore he set out If
this is progress, deliver US from it! II this is
mans way for one would like to listen
for amoment to a suggestion from the visionary
Christ; yea, to Christ who had visions of q
method that could dispense with murder.
Until employer and employed learn to believe
tt,a rrip frle nf pns fishu m
solution OF labor difficulties they will not have
peace The only mediator between man and
man, and the only mediator between God and
man is jesus Christ. l do not believe there is a
very great difference in the characters of most
men. We are nearly on a level. if we were only
humble enough to believe it. The average EN-
p,oyer is neither better nor worse than his men.
II you or l were in the places OF either we
should not do very different from what they
have done. There Ia a solidarity of the race. 1t
rises together, and it therefore rises slowly. II
the owners of those mills had been willing to
try Chrst's plan OF settling things they would
not have merited as they now merit the con-
demnation of all men.
The man who pays out ami the man who re-
ceives a dollar stamped with the legend SIN
God We Trust ought to believe in Jesus as an
arbitrator. Why is it that the man who has
adopted America Tor his country and become
rich here cannot believe a little more in the
democracy which he has Landed to the skies?
1t makes little difference in the ultimate con-
ciusion of all these things whether Jesus is
chosen arbitrator or not By and by he assumes
the arbitration. And voice sounds into the
ears OF every man who is willing to believe that
God understands business, and that voice, "Be-
hold l como quickly, to render unto
every according as his work
is" There Is no quick solution of the
labor question, because men are afraid OF the
quick ways of God. Already some of the agents
OF the owner and some of the workmen have
been ushered into the presence of the Judge OF
all the earth. And whatever else their conclu-
sion il, l am sure of this at least: They no
longer have any confidence in the use of a resort
to firearms and dynamite and fists. Christ's
words are coming true; there is no power with
out a recoil except the power of constrainiug
loye-love that is wide enough to consider all
the people whom God has made, and rot
merely a class of them. Institute today
the condition of society sketched by
Bellamy, set in full force all the
suggestions Of Henry George, and you would
not keep to either condition of society for
twenty flour hours. There would be murder
and adultery tonight, and every commandment
would be broken in every city of the world.
Justice is too narrow word to govern this
sinai 1t speaks in human Law. But in the
mael.trom of riots and lyuchings and robberles,
yea, in puzzed, wrecked human souls stands an
eternal reality OF justice transfused with love.
and whatsoever toucheth Him hath rest