The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-24
LABOR TALK IN THE PULPIT
Rev. ]. ]. Lan.eT'S Solution Of the
Labor Problem.

the First Step-Too much w ork
Largely the Cause of Starvation,
Physical, Moral and Mental - Mr..
Lanier's Ideas of Labor Reform.
Rev. J. J. Lanier, rector of St. PGuls
church, preached on the labor question
yesterday. The sermon was without
previous announcement, so that it was
heard only by mem bers of Mr.. Lanier's
congregation. The theme was suggest ted
by the labor troubles that have agitated
the country during the last year.
Mr.. Lanier is an eight hour advocate.
He believes in a reduction in the hours of
work as a means of giving more people
employment at better wages than they
are getting. Too much work, he be-
lieves, is one of the great obstacles in the
laboring mans way. There is, he says,
one unemployed person to every four
employed. If the four men would
reduce their time from ten to
eight hours, and let the one unem-
ployed man in for the eight hours thus
made for him, the same amount of work
would be done in the same time for the
same money, and the chances are that the
men would be less overworked and
would thereby be able to do better work.
Mr.. Lanier took as his text:
St. Matthew, vi. CHIP, 3133 V: Therefore
take no thought saying, What shall we eat:
or, W hat shall we drink? or, Wherewlthal
shall we lie clothed?-for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need OF all these
things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you
In these verses we are told three dis
tinct things about right living. We are
told to take no thought about what we
shall eat or drink or wear, and we are
given the very best of reasons for
this, beause our Heavenly Father knows
that we have need of these things, and
has provided them in abundance; but we
are told something about which we are to
take the utmost thought-that we are to
take the supremest thought ABOUT the
method in which we seek TO get these
things. If we take a wrong method to
get these things they will be withheld
| from US; but if we take the right method
they will be supplied in abundance.
1t is evident To any thinking mind that
If these propositions are true at all that
! they are well worthy of our earnest con-
sideration. If they throw any light upon
the worldwide distress at present in the
| world say ''world-widen advis-
eddy, because distress is confined
| TO no on section or part of the world
1t is in our own country-north, south,
east and west in the continent of tlu-
rope as well as the continent of America
the islands of the sea not excepted And
still more are they worthy of our deepest
and clearest thought, if in addition to
throwing light on the causes of our dis
/ l.
| 1t. If there ever was time
when the world needed to ponder over
these words, it is now, when the supreme
and only thought in the minds of most of
our people is how to get something to eat,
something to wear and something to
drink. Our time and age are distinctly
material; not because the mass OF the
| people wish to make it so, but because
the circumstances under which we live
force US, whether we will or not, TO spend
| long and toilsome hours to get the neces-
siJies of life But, we are told 10 take no
| thought of what we shall eat or what we
| shall drink, or what we shall wear, for
the simple and sufficient reason that God
| knows that we have need of these things
| and has provided them for US ages and
ages before we appeared upon the scene
| to use them.
MANS FIRST COMING.
| 4NOb uubll GuO dblllOS JuCEG udu Db6u
cleared by ages of carboniferous breath
! ing plants, and the air was filled with
| pure oxygen fit for him to breathe, did he
| appear upon the earth Not until the
! waters were clarified; not until the fruits
| grew in abundance for him to eat; not
until the ANIMALS appeared upon the earth
| which were to give him abundance of
clothing, did he appear upon the scenes
of the earth and when he did appear, all
that he could eat, or drink, or wear, was
ready stored in this beautiful arsenal of
the earth which he was to inherit
And with the same care that all things
were provided beforehand Tor the advent
of man, food, clothlng,- and the where
| withal TO drink, the same intelligence
was equally assiduous 10 provide these
things in abundance, that we might have
enough. If God had not provided these
things in abundance for his son, mankind,
we could not look up 10 him with the eve
of faith and OF hope and of love. He who
presided at the creation OF the world, at
least exercised as mucn forethought and
| intelligence as the steward Of trans
Atlantic steamer would in storing it for a
voyage.
IL would be gross criminality for a
| captain TO start on a voy age without a
sumciency OF food and drink to last the
| voyage; and for sod TO start this world
on its voyage insualcienJly stocked for
would be crime as infinitely more mex
cusable in HIM, as His intelligence and
power ana resources infinitely exceed any
conceivable in mortal man
God has ocked and stored the earth
and air and the water with sustenance
amply sufficient for the sons of men, and
they need not have the slightest fear this
supply will ever fail them, unless they
waste, mutilate and ruthlessly des roy it,
Man need not ever be anxious need never
take a thought about what he shall eat,
or drink. or wear, or that they will ever
fail him; for all he has o do is TO 90 to
natures eternal s,orehouse, and he will
lind them eternally there, many of them
known and many of them yet TO be dis
covered.
Az one time the worlds principal sup
ply Of artificial light was from the sperm
OF the whale, and when this supply be-
gan to be exhausted, for a short period a
wall went up from the earth to heaven
that great flood of darkness would de-
LUCE the world, and the time was now at
hand when sperm candles would sell at
fabulous prices; but before this great de-
LUCE des ended upon the earth, in its
more than Egyptian darkness, oil from
| the coal was discovered. and the world