The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-24
ON THE LABOR. PROBLEM
An Able Sermon by Rev. Hill
at the Christian Church.
THE HIGHEST GOOD OF MAN
He Who Will Not Work Should Not Eat.
1t Is Better to Give Man Employ
ment Than Bread-Teach Him
to Be a Man i

Rev. Sherman Hill of the Christian
church preached an interesting sermon
last evening on the labor problem. He
! took for his topic, THE Highest Good
of Man." and in substance said:
THE ancient preacher said. Fear
God and keep His commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man., but
mans highest duty and mans highest
good are not one and the same, they
are Synonymous. Duty is independent;
good is independent. In the Augustian
age in Rome there were III different
and conflicting views, but there is no
reason for it now. Robert owen said:
If men knew themselves they would
be good, if not perfect, men, The
Greeks wrote over the temple door at
Delphi Know Thyself. and it was a
timely saying. But whatever else man
may be, he is distinctively physical,
intellectual and spiritual.
Some have said man is not innately
a spiritual being. They say all we
know of God is from tradition. But
as we are to-day we recognize the need
of higher power, hence the need of
God. These three natures in man are
inseparable and dependent. No man
but would be a better man physically
were he a thinker and Christian. No
scholar but would be a better one We're
he sound man physically and spiri
tually, and no Christian but would be
better one were he pure in mind and
body. That we are all agreed that man
is being of body, mind and soul, we
can easily decide upon his highest good
is his greatest need. The need OF
every man is more far-reaching de-
velopment. The physical man needs
development, as is attested by the null
titude of physical physicians. is man
a creature of disease and suffering and
pain because he was so destined by the
Ii ttx-t 11e-f hn
suits of misdrected power? Why
should a man be sufferer far beyond
the suffering of other creatures who
has a sound body? All should be more
sound i'm body if correctly developed.
That the mind has not been fully devel-
oped is but matter too sadly appar-
emit
"A German officer asked 60 men in
his department regarding Bismarck
and 20 declared they never heard of
him. That we are not developed spiri-
tually is a matter OF every days tes-
timony. Men are contemptuous ana
selfish. But this wickedness, the wick
edness of the world, abundantly testi-
fies that men are not developed spiri-
tually. In the pro-slavery days
men admitted on ethical grounds that
slavery was wrong, but on economical
grounds they would not. our ethics
deny eXtortion and monopoly and Wall
street ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, but our eco
Monies still sustain it. We must make
our ethics and economies agree. If it
is ethically wrong to Cypress men it is
as wrong economically
But how are we to attain to this
Not by beginning atsthe
top: that is, by preaching conversion
to a hungry man. In beautiful yard
grew a luxuriant tree, but ii began to
decay; the topmost branches began to
wither. The kind but ignorant owner
began to prune and prune, but the tree
continued to wither. \ friend in
formed him that the uncovered roots
We're the cause. He cultivated them, |
and the tree once more throve. We |
must begin at the bottom to win
ciety. to win men to God. The un
ceasing mournful and determined cry |
of men of to-day is for bread. 1t is the |
acme of foolishness to preach CONVEX
sion to hungry man. Men should find |
bread only through employment. He |
who won't work should not eat. Bet |
ter give man employment than bread. |
Bread given to a man that he has not |
earned will destroy his manhood. |
Every time you feed n tramp you are
encouraging pronigaey and destroying |
his spunk of manhood Give him en-
ployment and teach him to be IA man. |
We will not experience a religious |
awakening until there are fewer idle |
men. When men can labor to care for |
The body. then the mind will share their |
efforts and there will thus be ushered |
in the greatest spiritual era in all his
tory. Until then let us seek to work |
and pray for speedy development of |
the principle Of the sermon on the |
mount that will bring to men their /
rightfuI sphere of life and living"