Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-02
LABoR'S DEBT TO GOD.
He 0beys His Own Law and His Son on Earth Observed Christianity the Working
 mans BulWork.

Rev. John Barbour, pastor of the South Highlands Presbyterian curch, preached on Christianity and Labor" from Christs words, John " IT: My father worketh hitherto, and I work"
 He said Tomorrow is Labor Day. One of our national holidays is a festival of labor. The land turns out to honor and celebrate the man who toils Now it was not always so, and is not so today where the Bible does not reach Nowhere out side the influence of the Hebrew and Christian religion is labor honorable. There were some favored occupations among the Creeks but the mass of men were diScriminated against. People who regard assertions from Christian pulpitS as questionable should read such a book as Kidd's Social Evolution If they would know the vast service of religion in preserving the essential equality Of man and affording the highest incen- tiVes to labor. It needs no demonstration beyond the open record of history to prove that the freedom and personal dig nifty of man as man came in with Chris ianity.
 Christianity has revolutionized the worlds idea of labor because it's God is a laborer. The nation rises above its standards, and especially its duties The Greeks worshipped Jupiter, the imper-
 
 caprice became the law of Greek civil ization. The Hindoos pictured their God in an infinite calm, and hence the stag nation of Hindoo life. The Egyptians withdrew God to the under world, and this is the transcript of Egypts char acter. She sits like her own sphinx at the Niles mouth, in an aimless, dreamy existence. The God of the Hebrews was a worker, eeaselessly laboring, and rul- ing all to the consummat1on or rlgnt- eousness. As a consequence wherever the Bible has gone labor is honorable, be- cause 1t is Godlike.
 Could you find grander words to write over the portals of industry than those words of Christ: My father worketh hitherto, and l work.
 And consider how Christ consecrated both kinds of labor. The greater part or his life He was a carpenter. Only three years did He preach and heal. He was the same man at both. He was both manual and a mental laborer, and more than this He was the great heart la borer The hardest work he ever did was to bear with an unwilling people. The most wearing labor is mental and spirit ual labor Now, however, just the im- peachment of the church today (and we have failed too much to follow our Mas ter in work for all and with alp men cannot gainsay the example Of Christ There was a measure of truth in the socialists who mounted His picture in their lodge as "the first great socialist. But beyond this Christianity fixes the right standard of work. We hear vast deal about the dignity of labor. It has become gospel. We seem on the verge of an aristocracy of labor. With some IL is made a crime not to be manual la borerl Now the Bible goes deeper. It takes it's eyes from the outside, asking, What are you working at, and why? The nIlrDOSn Pla SSifipS the work,
 Now, it seems to me men were never so "choosey" about their work as right here in republican America. And some of the self-constituted prophets of labor are among the most particular. They inn press us sometimes as being really ashamed of their toll, and envious of those removed above the necessity of hard manual labor. Now, 1t is not whether a man is to be an employer or an employe. If you are doing nothing worth the doing, if you are hard and selfish you would better have master Nor is it a question of skilled labor. A burglar is skilled workman; nor is the line be drawn at clean work. Am pere the scientist was denied ladys parlor because his hands were soiled in the laboratory. How ridiculous! Chem istry is not clean work, nor is painting, nor sculpture, nor that greatest of the arts, cooking. Nor does the vogue of the day or taste mark the difference.
 The dignity of labor depends on the dignity of the laborer. MT. Lincolns splitting rails does not forever ennoble rail-splttting. It is no better nor worse than any other save as it is related to yourself If it is your proper work do it, If not you are simply doing the devils work. I'm that case the work is dishonor-' able, whether it be making contracts, or writing poems, or preaching sermons.
 There is a good deal of twaddle about the dignity of labor. Labor is no more honorable than rest in itself. In fact, this is the very spring of invention-to reduce the hours of labor. The working man is beginning to demand an eight-hour day. 1 have not fully made up my mind, but l incline to believe he will get it and should have it. But this is aside. I am insisting that you must do your work, and that whether it be hand, head or heart work depends upon the circumstances of each individual. Finally. Christianity has done profound service to the laborer by its doctrine of rest. Honest labor wins respect and reward. The Christian heaven at life's end and the Christian Sabbath are the responses to this uni yersal need The Sabbath is made for the laborer, and it's true keeping is the pledge and measure of his devotion.
 1 saw a chart the other day embodying the discovery of a German scientist. He has found that the blood of a laborng man loses one ounce more of oxygen each day than he gets back by the nights rest. In one week there is lost just what it takes the Sabbath rest to replace. Behold in the very blood the law and prophecy of the Sabbath The laborer without Sabbath is the Veriest hireling. The aristocrat will take his rest anyhow. If our laboring classes give up the Sabbath, the Bible and the church they simply play into the hands of ho of liberty, but binds their arms in sla- very There is no dignity in labor save it be labor in company with Him who gives the true secret and victory of life. Blessed is that man who can say in the spirit of the Great Master Workman, My Father worlseth hitherto and work
 St. Paul's Catholic Church.
 Paferrinec to the annnuncement that