The times., 1897-06-21
A NATURAL RIGHT TO WORK
All Men Have This, Says the
Rev. DR.. Kent.
A BLESSING, NOT A CURSE
The Danger to the Nation from the
Enforced Idieness of Its Men.
Necessity for Work Law OF
Man's Being-A Great Duty of
American Citizens.

Tho Rev. Dr. Alexander Kent, pastor
of the Peoples Church, in a sermon to
his congregation on 1.-THE danger TO the
nation from the idleness of It's men and
the over-taxing of its women and children,"
said the old notion that work is q curse
sent upon man il consequence OF trans.
gressi,n Is one of the greatest and most
pestilential errors that ever found root in
human MUD.
An odd thing about this assertion, Dr.
Kent said, is that it has not a particle OF
monty supposed to give 1t sanction. The
writer of the Hebrew story of the worlds
beginning had no such shallow thought
To him the necessity for work existed In
what he pleased to picture as an Ideal
condition The Lord God took the man
whom he had created and put him into
the garden of Eden to dress and keep it,
This, however, was not Il task imposed
upon him as penalty for sin; it was at
once a privilege and duty growing ont Of
his own essential nature and the relation
to the physical environment which Condi-
toned his life.
The necessity for work was the very
law OF HIS being and not Ii resultant of
his disobedience to law; IL ante-dated
transgression. Work, in his thought was
natural and necessary and ante-dated SIN.
But thoIns and thiStles, trouble and sorrow.
toll and pain, were different They cen
stituted no part OF normal or necessary
order.
Now there is a deep truth underlying
this pictoual Representations; a truth which
we in this generation and in this re-
public need to realize as we have never
done before.
We need To realize that work s a nat ttral
necessity: that the necessity for it is rooted
in the very essentials of our Icing aud can
never he outgTown by any accumulation Of
wealth OF any degree of mental or Tnoiai
development. We want 10 feel that the
toll and misery so common, so widespread
at least among the masses of our kind,
are neither natural nor needful that they
are not the necessary outcome of natural
law, tut the telling evidence that natural
law is being disregaried and disobe yed.
And we need tofell that this disregard and
QlSOfbedienCe Is not eCHIntu 10 Ire POOR
and miserable AMI thriftless, who seem
to he the greater sufferers. We need 10
feel that we are all at fault in Just such
degree {; 5 it is within our rower TO make
| things better We forget cur duty TO our
brothers in our eager care for the lower
SELF This IS not the sin of any class; it is
| tile sin OF every class.
II we want all men and women To have
equal opportunities to make the most OF
themselves aud the best possible uss OF
| their powers, we must not wait for the
| few VINO nave wealth and influence 10
| move In the matter. They are not moving
] in that direction Their interest. rs they
see 1t, does not lie that way, and what is
| more they don't believe that the general
interest does. They believe that general
interest Is best served by the survival of
| the fittest. and that they are the fit
| test. They don't believe that prosperity
for the multitude is possible. The bulk Of
| the people were born to be ruled, and all
hope of SELF government is empty and vain.
We have one end in view, national
| freedom, and full opportunity for each
| and ali.